


Can't Help Falling

by esthropp



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-04-14 16:11:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 42,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4570995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esthropp/pseuds/esthropp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Let us watch as intern Callie Torres falls for Attending Arizona Robbins. It's gonna be a real slow burner, but we'll still have some fun along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Beyond Your Peripheral Vision

**Author's Note:**

> I thought this could be an interesting thing so I decided to write it. I'm gonna have elements of some of Grey's storylines, but obviously some things will be different. I enjoy taking liberties sometimes so be warned.

**a.k.a. We're Doctors?**

_And I'm beyond your peripheral vision,  
So you might wanna turn your head. _

* * *

"Grey, Karev, Torres, Yang, O'Malley, you're with me, come on."

That would be The Nazi, or Dr. Miranda Bailey. She was the resident presiding over five new surgical interns, Drs. Meredith Grey, Alex Karev, Callie Torres, Cristina Yang, and George O'Malley. It was the first day for the new interns and every one of them were practically jumping in excitement at the chance to scrub in on a surgery. All of them, except one.

Callie Torres was a little older than the rest of her group, a little more experienced in the ways of the world, and yes, she was beyond ecstatic to be there, at one the best hospitals in the country to learn from the best surgeons. But unlike most of the other interns, she knew without a shadow of a doubt what surgical specialty she would be going into. That, and she also knew that as an intern, she was already at the bottom of the food chain, which meant everyone probably hated her anyway. (Even she kind of hated the other interns; they were like freshmen.) There was no reason for her to try to suck up to people who already hated her.

"Yang, you're with me for today. Grey, you're with Dr. Shepherd. O'Malley, you're with Dr. Burke. Torres, you're with Dr. Sloan. And Karev, you're with Dr. Robbins," Bailey barked out the orders without looking up from the chart she was reading.

"Yes," Karev hissed in glee, while the other interns managed to hold in their groans. He was working with _The_ Arizona Robbins. Sure, it was Peds, but she was like the Ellis Grey of pediatric surgery, and she'd only been an Attending for a few years. She was already the head of a department at one of the top hospitals in the country, she was double board certified in Peds and Cardio, and she had already been nominated for a Harper Avery award. That was basically unheard of.

Even Callie was a little jealous he was getting to work with her, despite knowing she was going to end up in orthopedics.

"Bailey, what have you got for us?"

As if on cue, all five new interns turned around at the sound of the unfamiliar voice to see three very confident, very hot Attendings striding down the hallway toward them. The first was a blue eyed male with weirdly perfect, dark colored hair and an incredibly charming smile. Next to him was a short woman with long, honey blonde hair, big sapphire eyes that seemed to gleam with mischief, an enchantingly dimpled smile and a childlike bounce in her step. On her other side was a tall, chiseled, blue eyed man with dark blonde hair, a strong jaw, and a smirk that promised trouble playing on his lips.

"Dr. Shepherd, you've got Dr. Grey on your service today." Mr. Perfect Hair shot a knowing smile at his assigned intern. "Dr. Robbins, you've got Dr. Karev." The blonde haired woman narrowed her eyes playfully at her intern when he walked up to her. "Dr. Sloan, you've got Dr. Torres on your service today." The last man's smirk turned suggestive when his gaze landed on Callie.

With that, Bailey took off down the hallway, Yang and O'Malley barely managing to keep up.

"Dr. Grey," Shepherd greeted the skinny blonde before him before turning to the two other doctors he'd arrived with. "Drinks tonight?"

The blonde, Dr. Robbins, shook her head. "Nope. It's date night," she stated with an amused grin, her dimples popping good-humoredly.

Shepherd frowned, clearly displeased with her words. "Damn. I forgot. Why am I not invited to date night again?"

"Because Mark is needy and starving for my undivided attention," she teased, chuckling at Sloan's indignant squawk.

"That is completely not true," he protested, glaring at the pediatric surgeon.

Shepherd's charming smile made another appearance. "It's okay, Mark. You don't need to deny it. We all know you're in love with Arizona and you're too scared to admit it."

"I am not," he denied, nudging the giggling blonde in the side. "You guys are jerks."

"Mark honestly, I'm flattered by your insistence on us having a date night," Robbins chortled, patting Sloan on the arm. "It lets me know that you care about our relationship."

"You're an ass," he scowled at Shepherd's laughter as the neurosurgeon and his intern made their way toward the elevator. "Why are you two always so mean to me?"

"Because you make it so easy," was her swift reply. She glanced down at the chart in her hand and handed it over to her intern. "Arizona Robbins, Peds."

"Alex Karev," he took the chart. "It's an honor to work with you, Dr. Robbins. I've read about a lot of your work."

"Oh! Are you interested in Peds?" She inquired curiously, and Callie was mildly tickled by the genuine excitement that the woman exuded.

Alex didn't even hesitate. "No, Plastics, but I can be persuaded."

She pursed her lips at this response. "We'll see."

"Mark Sloan, Plastics," Mark introduced himself to his sexy intern, suggestive smirk back in place.

Callie chuckled at his antics. "Callie Torres."

"No," Arizona said before Mark could say anything else.

"No, I'm pretty sure that's my name," the Latina quipped.

The older woman's smile was nothing short of entertained. "Not you, him. Mark Sloan, you are not to sleep with the interns, especially that one."

Callie's eyes widened. "Whoa, okay then." That escalated quickly.

"I'm hurt, Robbins. Why do you assume I'm going to sleep with the interns? And why especially this one?" Mark wanted to know.

"Because I know you, Mark," Arizona said simply. "And Torres is hot. Like, sexy, almost dirty hot and I know that's your favorite. So no, you will not sleep with her."

"You're not giving Torres much of a say in this," he pointed out. "What if she wants to sleep with me?"

She turned to look at the dark haired intern. "If you sleep with him, I'll make sure you're on scut for a month, understood?" Callie nodded once, smirking despite the threat. The blonde turned back to Sloan with a big grin. "See? Problem solved."

Alex snorted, earning him a glare from Mark. "I'm gonna remember this, Robbins. Next time I see you eyeing a hot chick, I'm swooping in."

Arizona rolled her eyes, throwing a wink at the interns. "Please Mark, have you seen me? When would a woman ever choose you over me? Now, come on, Karev. We have tiny humans to save." And with that she wheeled away, not glancing back to see if her intern was following.

Callie, amused beyond belief despite the offbeat banter, looked at Mark. "Does she have wheels on her shoes?"

* * *

"Grey, how's neuro treating you?" Callie found Meredith leaning against the nurse's station, looking like someone punched her in the stomach. They were only eight hours into their thirty six hour shift.

"Today is not my day," the blonde haired intern nearly groaned.

"Uh, why? Did you kill someone already?" The Latina joked. Except she wasn't really joking; she was fucking terrified she'd kill someone on her first day.

Meredith rolled her eyes. "No. I… did something stupid last night and now I'm paying for it. What about you?"

Callie frowned at the question. "Well, Sloan tried to make me get his coffee, but I quickly made him understand that while I am a lowly intern, I'm not his personal assistant."

"Seriously? What did he do?" She asked because from what she had already gathered, the Attendings and residents were making it their mission to crush any enthusiasm the interns had about being surgeons.

"He said he liked my sass, but if I didn't get his coffee in ten minutes, he'd send me up to OB for two weeks." She made a face at that notion. She loved babies and everything, but OB… just, no.

Meredith winced in sympathy. "Ouch."

"Yeah, but it―"

"Torres!"

"Speak of the plastic devil," Meredith mumbled, smirking, causing Callie to laugh out loud. "I've got to go. Wish me luck."

"Luck," the brunette called after her, still chuckling when Mark came up to her.

"What's so funny, Torres?" He demanded, all but snatching the cup of coffee from her hand.

Snatching it back, she barely managed to smother her residual laughter. "This is mine. I already got you two cups today and if you expect me to continue to bring you coffee and do your charts, this. Is. Mine," she punctuated her last statement by taking a good, long sip. "Besides, I thought you were supposed to be in surgery right now anyway."

"It got pushed back because a kid came in with a stick in his spleen," he expounded.

"In that case, I'm going to finish these charts," as she said that, she picked up said large pile of charts, "in the gallery."

"I'll join you," he decided, falling into step with her. After a beat of silence, he spoke. "So, you wanna get a drink with me some time?"

Callie didn't even break her stride at the question, she just laughed a little. "Why would you want to get a drink with me? I'm just an intern."

"Because you seem like the kind of woman who likes to have a good time."

"We've spent like, a maximum of two hours together," she pointed out, shaking her head.

"All the more reason to get to know each other," he grinned enticingly, and she had to admit that had she not been threatened by a surgical prodigy, she would have been all over Mark Sloan. He was too many kinds of attractive and clearly interested, but she wasn't going to break the one rule Arizona Robbins had set for her.

"We'll see," was all she said before the two of them entered the nearly packed gallery. Mark kicked two interns out of their seats in the middle row and he and Callie sat down. In the OR below, Arizona and Bailey had their hands deep in an eleven-year-old's bowels, with Alex and Cristina standing off to the side, observing. Arizona quietly said something to the anesthesiologist that made the man release a deep belly laugh.

"Robbins, you're a surgeon, not a stand-up comedian, you know," they heard Bailey drawl over the intercom.

"You know you think I'm funny, Bailey," Arizona replied loftily, distractedly. She glanced up at the monitor just in time to see the patient's blood pressure dropping. "Shoot. His BP is dropping… and he's tamponading."

"What happened?" Callie wondered, barely sparing a glance at her Attending. Her eyes were focused on the procedure, and the lead surgeon.

"Karev, Yang, get me an ultrasound and a twenty five gage needle," the blonde ordered.

"You thinking pericardial effusion?" Bailey asked.

Arizona looked up at the residence as the scrub nurses prepped the patient for the procedure. "Yup." She grabbed the needle from Alex's hands. "Dr. Yang, the ultrasound, please," she requested, and Cristina placed the wand over the patient's chest. The image of the beating heart appeared on the ultrasound screen. "Can you tell me what you see, Dr. Karev?"

"Fluid in the pericardium," he answered.

"Right. Dr. Yang, hold that steady, please." The pediatric surgeon then plunged the needle into her patient's chest and began to remove the fluid. Once the fluid and needle were out, the little boy's heart rate stabilized and his blood pressure went up.

"Well done, Dr. Robbins," Bailey remarked, getting back to work repairing the damage in the abdomen.

Arizona's beaming smile was apparent, even through her scrub mask. But rather than responding verbally, she gave a little hum of appreciation.

Up in the gallery, dark eyes shined with something most closely related to adoration. "She's kind of a badass, isn't she?"

All Mark could do was laugh because yeah, Arizona Robbins _was_ kind of a badass.

**xXx**

Callie had only known Cristina Yang for about ten hours, but she was sure that Cristina Yang was not a gusher. But that was what she was doing right now. She was gushing. And it was weird. Really weird.

"Did you see her? Did you see me? Did you see us? That was amazing!"

"I was there, too, Yang," Alex grumbled, shooting the curly haired woman an annoyed glare.

The interns were sitting in the cafeteria eating lunch about an hour after Dr. Robbins' surgery; it was the first break they'd gotten all day.

"Yeah, but you didn't do anything," Cristina told him, matter-of-factly.

"Shut up," he scowled.

"As amazing as that surgery was, let's talk about how Ellis Grey is Meredith's mother," Callie said, smiling when Meredith shot her a glare.

That got Yang's attention. "Seriously? How did I not know that?"

"Because we've known each other for nine hours," George pointed out, innocently logical.

"Interns." The five of them glanced up to see their four Attendings standing over their table. The three men had their arms folded across their chests, going for the intimidation approach, while Robbins stood next to them bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"As I'm sure you know, the Attendings will be picking the intern who shows the most promise to perform a solo appendectomy," Burke intoned, sharing a look with both Derek and Mark.

Arizona rolled her eyes at her colleagues. "We picked you, O'Malley. Congratulations."

"We were going for a buildup, Arizona," Mark almost whined.

"Okay, you're all ridiculous," she told them, and then spoke to the female interns. "I work with too many silly boys."

"Fun sucker," Derek whispered snidely, smiling.

The blonde drew in an exaggerated gasp. "Excuse me, I am the queen of all things fun and awesome. Just ask my kids. Your idea of fun is dumb, boy fun, which is actually not even fun at all." She looked like she was going to say more, but her pager went off before she could. Glancing down at it, she smirked and started backing away. "Hey Karev, wanna watch me give a kid a new kidney?"

The intern paused mid-bite and shot out of his seat, hurrying after the blonde.

"Torres," Sloan beckoned her, turning on his heel and heading out of the cafeteria.

Callie was barely able to keep her eyes from rolling as she stood from the table to follow him. As ridiculous and entertaining as he was, he was still her boss. "So where are we going?"

" _I'm_ going to treat a burn victim. _You're_ going to chart," he said.

 _Of course._ "Okay. So there's like no chance you'll at least let me watch?"

He scoffed. "Torres, until I can just trust you not to breathe the wrong way, I'm not letting you anywhere near my patients."

She made a disgruntled noise at his statement. "Fair enough." His eyebrows rose in surprise and she couldn't help but laugh. "I get it, okay? I'm eager to get in on a surgery, but as a surgeon, I'm a baby compared to you. As a person, not so much. I have some life experience and some perspective, so I get it. But don't think that means you can keep making me do your dirty work all the time."

Mark's stare was thoughtful and considering for a long moment, and for a hopeful second, she thought he might change his mind, but that was shot to hell when he spoke again. "Are you sure you don't wanna get a drink with me?"

She grinned over her bubbling laughter and changed the subject because sometimes Mark Sloan was just too much to handle. "So you and Dr. Robbins seem really close."

"Yeah," he nodded, giving her sideways glance.

"She seems… interesting," she dared to comment, her lips curling up slightly as she thought of the pediatric surgeon. "Perky, but interesting. Is it the Peds thing?"

"Huh?"

"The perky, and the bubbliness," she clarified.

"Why do you care, Torres?" He queried, blue eyes narrowed.

The Latina shrugged casually. "Like I said, she seems interesting. It's actually a little surprising that you two are... close."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He snapped.

"Nothing. It was just an observation," she raised her hands in a placating gesture. "Forget I said anything."

Whatever he was going to say was cut off the by the shrill sound of his pager. He checked it and bit off a soft curse. "It's the pit. Let's go."

When they got to the ER, they were immediately pulled into ER 2 where a man was covered in deep cuts. His legs were also unpleasantly tangled up together. As soon as Callie saw the mangled bones, a little tingle began in her fingertips and started to spread up her arms.

This was going to be fun.

* * *

"So ortho, huh?"

In the middle of her post-surgery high, Callie whirled around in the scrub room to see Dr. Robbins standing in the doorway, wearing the Attendings' customary dark blue scrubs.

"Uh… what?"

The blonde smirked. "Articulate, too, I see."

The raven haired woman chuckled. "I'm sorry. That was my first surgery and I'm kind of…" she racked her brain for the perfect word. "…high, right now. You asked about ortho?"

"Yeah. Mark just told me about your extremely lucky patient, and how you helped saved his legs," Robbins expounded, tilting her head when Callie blushed and ducked her head. "And how you were completely fascinated with all the broken bones."

"Yeah," she confirmed, a little embarrassed. "Bones are kind of my thing. I think they're really―"

"―awesome," the Attending finished.

Full lips stretched into a slow smile. "Yeah."

"Well, congratulations on your first successful surgery." They both left out any mention of O'Malley's botched appy. "And because I know Mark, I know he's not gonna tell you this, but good job today, Dr. Torres."

At the last declaration, Callie's eyes snapped to hers and she let out a small grin when she saw that the other woman was being sincere. "Thanks. That means a lot coming from you." The blonde beamed in response and turned to leave. "Hey, how'd your kidney patient do?"

"She made it through surgery without any complications, so we'll see," she told her, backing out of the scrub room. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"What?"

"You survived your first day as intern," Robbins informed her. "Go home, Dr. Torres."

Callie was half way through the lobby when she spotted something that made her stop in her tracks. Sloan and Dr. Robbins were standing at the entrance holding hands and she was sure it was the blonde who was swinging their hands in between them. She watched Mark lean over and say something to Arizona that caused the woman to burst out in maybe the most adorable giggles Callie had ever heard. The sight made her chest ache for some reason, especially when Arizona reached out to take Mark's other hand so they were now standing face to face grinning at each other.

She was shook out of her daze when she heard someone call her name. She saw Cristina and Meredith walking toward her and offered them both a wry grin; they looked like shit. Then again, she probably did, too.

"I saved a life today," she blurted before they had even made it to her.

"So did we," Cristina said proudly.

"We're doctors," Meredith announced with an oddly dazed smile. "How did that happen?"

Callie could only laugh.

She was a doctor.

* * *

_I'm a poster girl with no poster.  
I am 32 flavors and then some._


	2. Dancing on Our Own

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let us watch as intern Callie Torres falls for Attending Arizona Robbins. It's gonna be a real slow burner, but we'll still have some fun along the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Arizona's love of Winnie the Pooh is probably going to be consistent in all of my stories because I like it and I said so. Also, Winnie the Pooh is amazing. That's all.

**a.k.a Cuddly Little Cubby**

_Here we go, dancing on our own_  
_Inside this house that we have never known,_  
 _Never known._

* * *

This was a bad idea. A really, really fucking bad idea.

A couple of days ago, nearly a month into their intern year at Seattle Grace, Cristina found out that Callie lived in the apartment building directly across from the hospital, and all but pressured Callie into letting her move in. At first Callie honestly didn't mind having a roommate, and she got along with Cristina well enough, so she thought _why not?_

This.

This was why the fuck not.

Cristina lived like she had no home training whatsoever. It was disgraceful in Callie's honest opinion.

"Cristina! If you don't pick up your stuff, I'm throwing it out the window!"

Callie had literally just walked in the door, she hadn't even been able to take a step into the apartment because Cristina's crap was littered all over the living room. And Callie knew the other intern's room was worse. How she managed to have so much freaking crap was beyond the Latina.

"I am! Calm down," Cristina appeared in the doorway of her room. "Mer's coming over to help me." The disbelief must have been clear on Callie's face because she continued. "She's having a crisis or whatever."

God, when wasn't Meredith having a crisis?

"Well, in that case, you can get a head start because I'm not living in your filth any longer than I have to," she asserted, kicking a shirt that was next to her foot.

"Fine, geez. What crawled in your panties and died?"

Frustration contorted dusky-skinned features as Callie prepared to rip her roommate a new one. "You know what, Cristina―"

Somewhere behind her someone cleared their throat, effectively cutting her off. She whirled around to give whoever it was a piece of her mind because she was _so_ not in the mood for any more shit, but when she saw who it was, her lips pulled together tightly, refusing to let any of her harsh thoughts fly.

"Hi," she stammered in surprise. So not who she was expecting to see.

"Hi," the other woman said, mouth twitching upward as she fought off laughter.

When Callie caught sight of a dimple winking at her, she managed to chuckle nervously, suddenly embarrassed. "What are… uh, what are you doing here?"

She jerked a thumb over her shoulder, pointing to the door across the hall. "I live there."

"Oh," she said. Great, she lived across the hall from her boss. "I live here. With Cristina." Obviously. "Uh… I just got home." Dear Lord, why? Why was she still speaking? She made no sense.

"Just got home and you're already making a fuss, huh?" Dr. Robbins quipped, allowing a small grin to appear.

Brown eyes widened almost comically. "It's Cristina. She's messy. Absurdly, life threatening-ly messy."

The other intern snorted, having been quietly watching the exchange. "Uh-uh, don't blame your crabby mood on me."

"You are messy," Callie stated as if speaking to a child. "And I'm _not_ crabby."

"I don't know, you sound pretty crabby to me," the blonde teased, continuing even when the raven haired woman opened her mouth to say something. "But after the day you've had, I don't blame you. Derek told me about it." She answered Callie's unasked question.

Internally, Callie groaned. Of course. Just what she needed, Shepherd telling Dr. Robbins about what a colossal failure she was. "Ah."

The blue eyed woman clearly wanted to say more, but the door to the apartment across the hall ―her apartment― opened, and of all people, a shirtless Mark Sloan walked out. Callie literally wanted to bang her head against a brick wall until she saw brain matter.

" _But she caught me on the counter. It wasn't me. Saw me bangin' on the sofa. It wasn't me. I even hit her in the shower. It wasn't me. She stayed…"_

Shaggy. Nice.

"You planning on joining me anytime soon, Robbins?"

Before Arizona could reply, Cristina spoke up. "Is that Sloan?"

"Yep," Callie confirmed.

"Torres," Mark boomed, because he didn't appear to have any other volume than incredibly loud. "What are you doing here? Finally decided you wanna get drinks with me?"

"What? N-no, I don't― I'm not―" she stuttered momentarily, before blowing out a hollow, laughing breath. "I live here, and I just wanna go to bed," she finally settled on.

"Well, mine is―"

"Mark, if you finish that sentence, I _will_ hurt you," Arizona promised. "Go back inside, I will be there in a minute. I'm having a conversation."

"She just said she was tired," the plastic surgeon pointed out even as he made his way back into the apartment.

She turned her attention back to the intern with a playful eye roll. "Boys are silly."

Callie snorted, unable to hold back her derision. "Yeah. Especially that one. What do you see in him anyway? I know he's hot, like ridiculously hot, but still. He's kind of a child, and really inappropriate and, and, and… he's your boyfriend. I'm sorry, don't listen to me. I'm really tired."

"Whoa, okay. Ew. Mark is not and will not ever be my boyfriend, unless he decides to randomly sprout a vagina, which I highly doubt because he's very attached to his boy parts." The blonde shuddered at the thought of her and Mark. She loved him and he was one of her best friends, but them together as a couple was just ten different types of wrong. "He's my friend and we live together because he doesn't like to be alone."

"Oh." Huh. That was definitely something to think about. "I'll have to tell Michelle," referencing an internal medicine intern she was friendly with. "She's convinced you two are fucking― _God,_ I'm sorry. Please, forget everything I'm saying. I am really, _really_ tired."

Arizona surprised her by laughing. "Don't be sorry. You are strangely amusing."

"Uh… thank you?" She chuckled, and then glanced back into her apartment where Cristina was still watching them. She had totally forgotten about her roommate. "Um, so I'm gonna head to bed now."

"Right, yeah. Well, hey, don't, uh… you don't get used to it," Arizona told her. "The hard, emotional parts of the job. You don't ever really get used to it, but you learn to deal with it, so don't stay too hung up on it, and I hope you have a better day tomorrow."

Something bubbled in Callie's chest at her (newly discovered) neighbor's words and before she knew what she was doing, she reached out to take one of Arizona's small, ivory hands. _Girly hands,_ she internally grinned despite her sour mood. Meeting expectant, azure eyes, she offered a small smile of gratitude. "Thank you."

"Good night, Calliope," the blonde sent a grin over her shoulder as she all but charged into her apartment, yelling something at Mark in the process.

In a bit of a stupor, Callie went inside her apartment and shut the door after her. "How does she know my name?" She wondered out loud.

"McSteamy lives with McHottie? I gotta tell Mer." Oh yeah, Cristina was still there.

"Wait, Mc-what?"

"McSteamy," the other intern repeated. "Sloan is McSteamy, Robbins is McHottie, and Shepherd is McDreamy."

"That is… weirdly accurate," she had to acknowledge.

"Isn't it?"

"Well, I'm going to shower and head to bed. Tell Meredith not to cry too loudly," she threw the comment over her shoulder on the way to her room.

* * *

He died. The surgery was a success, and he still died. There was a re-bleed after the initial surgery, and they weren't able to get to it in time to stop the bleeding before his brain herniated from the swelling. He was twenty four and he was supposed to start a business and marry his girlfriend and have babies, but he wouldn't get to do any of that because he was dead.

All she could do was frown when Shepherd turned his empathetic gaze on her. Snapping off her gloves, she left the OR and started to scrub out. He was behind her not long after, leaning up against the scrub sink she wasn't using.

"There was no way we could have known this was going to happen," he was saying, but she wasn't listening.

Her pulse pounded slowly in her ears and she shook her head back and forth to make it stop. Sucking in a deep breath, she opened her eyes, not bothering to wonder when she'd closed them. "I don't wanna talk about it right now."

"Dr. Torres…" he stepped closer and lowered his voice soothingly. "We did everything we could for him, but sometimes there are complications. We can't save everyone."

She raised her wary, defeated gaze to meet his. "I know that. But like I said, I don't wanna talk about it right now."

He gave her a long, considering stare before nodding. "Okay." He washed and dried his hands and left the scrub room.

When he was gone, she let her head fall forward in defeat. It was just another day in the life of a surgeon, she supposed. There was a good chance she'd lose another patient tomorrow because that was how life worked and she just had to learn to deal with it or get the hell out.

But how do you deal with it?

After what felt like an eternity of staring into the scrub sink, though it was probably only about a few minutes, she dried her hands off and walked out, nearly colliding with someone.

"Sorry. I'm sorry. I wasn't paying…" she trailed off when she saw who she'd bumped into and had to fight the urge to groan. _Seriously?_ "… attention."

Alex smirked. "No problem."

No, she was absolutely not in the mood to get hit on by Alex Karev again. They slept together once like two weeks ago and it was great, but she was so not going there again.

"Karev, where are my charts?"

She stifled the chuckle that threatened her lips when Alex jumped at the sound of Mark's voice.

"I was just about to get them, Dr. Sloan," the plastics lackey said quickly, racing away as fast as he could without breaking into a run.

Not that she blamed him; Sloan was a terror on the interns.

"Torres, why aren't you charting?"

This time, she couldn't resist rolling her eyes. She wasn't dealing with this right now. "I just got out of surgery and my shift is over," she glanced at a nearby clock, "twenty minutes ago, so I'm done for the day." She started to walk past him.

"Do you wanna meet for a drink later?"

She scoffed, but otherwise didn't respond as she made her way to the intern's locker room. George and another intern, Izzie Stevens were already there getting ready to leave. She offered them a weak wave as she plopped down on the bench and opened her locker.

She had her shirt half way up her torso when George called her name, so she paused in her quest to change and turned to him, noting his blush. "Yeah?"

"A couple of the other interns are heading to the bar across the street for a drink, do you wanna come?" He asked, his brows raised hopefully.

"Ah, you know, maybe another time, George. I really just wanna get home," she politely declined, removing her scrub top the rest of the way. "But if Meredith's there, can you tell her," she shrugged her t-shirt over her head, "that she left her green coffee mug at my apartment?"

"You're friends with Meredith?" Izzie queried, sounding confused.

There was something about the way she asked it that made Callie's eyebrow raise skeptically of its own accord. "Yee-eah. I mean, she's closer to Cristina, but we're all friends." She had the thought to ask why the blonde wanted to know, but decided not to because she wasn't sure if she liked Izzie Stevens. And she wasn't sure Izzie Stevens liked her. Shaking her head lightly because she really didn't care, she shoved her scrub pants down her legs and yanked on her jeans. "I'll be happy to walk out with you though."

"Great," George smiled at her. "I haven't seen you since lunch. How's your neuro patient?"

Unable to help herself, she snorted. She did not want to talk about it. "He died, and it's not funny." She pulled on her jacket, grabbed her bag, and followed them out, ignoring Izzie's look of muted horror at her response. "It's not, I just… I _really_ don't wanna talk about it."

"I'm sorry about that."

"Yeah," she sighed. "How was your day? I heard you found a liver for your patient."

He perked up and smiled brightly at the mention of his latest surgical feat. "Yeah, I did. I scrubbed in with Dr. Burke and it was amazing."

"I'm glad." And she was. At least someone lived. "What about you, Izzie? Cristina told me you two had a patient, but that's about all she told me. How'd that go?"

"He was brain dead because of that stupid bike race so Cristina and I found his family to see if he was an organ donor, and the wife consented," Izzie expounded, matter-of-factly. "That's where George got his liver."

"Ah," she nodded as they stepped outside. "Well, this is where we part ways. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow, Callie."

And god, if George wasn't the cutest.

She sent him a small smile as she made her way across the street to her apartment building. And of course when she got there, she was forced to get on the elevator with Creepy Steve. Wonderful. Though maybe she should start calling him Creepy Douchebag Steve because he always took the elevator even though he only lived on the second floor. Seriously, who did that? Unless a person had a disability, she didn't think there was a good enough reason to ride the elevator to the second floor from the first. Fucking lazy people. Then to top it all off when she finally got to her door she couldn't find her damn key.

"Oh, come _on_. Can this day just be over already?" She whined loudly and kicked the door as she rummaged through her purse. When she still couldn't find it, she just gave up and slid down to the floor with her back against the door.

Could that day have gottten any worse?

She didn't lift her head when she heard someone get out of the elevator and walk her way. She had a feeling she knew who it was. Cristina would never miss out on an opportunity to drink tequila and Sloan was still at work. Or at least, she assumed he was. Besides, if it was him, she would have heard him by now. So really, that only left one person. And said person had yet to go into their apartment.

"Hey."

She knew if she looked up, her head of Peds would be standing in front of her, and oddly enough, that made her feel better so she looked up. Except she was wrong. Arizona wasn't standing in front of her; instead, she was squatting down in front of her so they were at eye level. She'd seen her do that with many of her younger patients when they were able to get out of bed, and Callie felt herself smiling just slightly.

"Hey."

Blue eyes narrowed just a little and they shifted from side to side as her mouth puckered in contemplation before landing back on the intern in front of her. "Hippo milk is pink."

The absurdity and randomness of the statement broke Callie's resolve and she tipped her head back as loud, throaty guffaws left her mouth. "Wha―what?"

"It is. It's pink," she repeated, smiling innocently as if she didn't know she was the source of the other woman's merriment.

"How―how do you… even know that?" the brunette asked, struggling to control her mirth.

The blonde just shrugged. "I like animals." Still smiling, she sat back on her heels, obviously preparing to get comfortable. "You look upset."

For whatever possible reason she found the unassuming observation delightful and sweet, and her laughter quieted into a small grin. "I, uh… yeah, I kind of am."

"But you don't wanna talk about it," the other woman guessed.

"Not really, no."

Arizona nodded and hummed a little, her baby blues once again darting around while she thought. And it was always a kind of startling to Callie when their gazes met again because Arizona's eyes were such an intense shade of blue. "I know what you need," she announced, promptly standing. "If you'll let me, of course."

"I'll let you do anything you want," she murmured softly.

Arizona's mouth opened slightly in surprise or… amusement?

Which was when Callie realized what she actually just said.

"Oh, my god! I didn't mean like it like that," she panicked. "That's really embarrassing."

"It's fine, Calliope. I know what you meant." Even so, she was giggling. "Don't worry about it. Now come on." She held out her hand that Callie didn't even hesitate in taking, and unlocked the door to her and Mark's apartment, pulling the intern inside.

Chocolate eyes scrutinized her bosses' apartment, which was nearly identical to hers and Cristina's. "This looks just like my apartment."

"I'm sure yours isn't as nicely decorated," she remarked airily.

And Callie would have taken offense if her eyes hadn't just landed on the large framed picture of a seriously smoking hot woman. She didn't really swing that way, but Jesus fuck, that woman was sexy as hell. She was wearing nothing but a tiny, cobalt blue tank top and a matching pair of panties, sitting on the edge of a bed with her legs wide open and both of her hands in between them. She was leaning forward on her hands so her cleavage was out of this world and her long, yellow blonde sex hair was draped over most of her face, but she was staring up at the camera with a sultry smirk on her lips.

"Wait a second," Callie said under breath, stepping closer to the image. She recognized those eyes… and those dimples. "Oh, my god, is that you?"

Arizona grinned. "Yep. How could you tell? Most people never guess."

"Um, hello? Dimples. And your eyes. They totally give you away," she explained, not taking her eyes off the poster. "Wow, you have an amazing body."

"Thank you, Calliope. I get that a lot."

"Did you used to model?" She wondered. She knew Izzie Stevens used to model and she wondered if it was a blonde thing.

"Not on purpose," Arizona answered, earning her a look of confusion. "My mother likes to take a lot of pictures. I grew up sort of modeling in my house."

"Your mom took this?" That would be pretty weird.

"No, one of my ex-girlfriends took that," she said. "She was a fan of taking candid pictures of me and growing up I learned to be really photogenic."

" _That's_ candid?" Because if so, everyone else was doing it wrong.

"Semi-candid," she conceded. "I was already sitting like that and she told me she was taking a picture so I looked up."

"And then you decided to blow it up and hang it up in your apartment for all to see?"

"Actually, I lost a bet with Mark and that's what I had to do," she chuckled.

Dark eyebrows rose. "You don't seem like the betting type."

"Oh?" That piqued her interest. "What type do I look like then?" She tilted her head to the side as she waited for a response.

Callie laughed quietly at the question. "I'm not answering that."

Arizona instantly pouted. "Why not?"

"Because I don't know what to say." And without even thinking about it, she reached out and brushed her thumb across Arizona's pouty bottom lip.

While she was internally freaking out, the action didn't seem to faze the older surgeon because all she did was smirk. "Better be careful, Calliope. I bite."

"I bite back, so no worries," she bantered back, her hand returning back to her side.

Shit, were they flirting?

Arizona giggled when Callie's eyes widened. "I'll be right back."

"Okay, I'll just… stand here, I guess," the Latina whispered awkwardly as she watched her boss walk into the room that corresponded to Cristina's room in her own apartment. She returned only a moment later with a stuffed Winnie the Pooh bear that was about the size of a small toddler. "Uh, what is that?" She asked, smiling.

The pediatric surgeon looked at her like she'd just asked the dumbest question she'd ever heard. "It's Pooh Bear," she said slowly as if she was talking to a child.

Callie rolled her eyes. "Yes, I know, but why do you have it?"

" _He_ is mine," she corrected, holding him out toward the other woman. "I sleep with him almost every night, but I am going to allow you his services tonight because you look like you need him more than I do."

"You're serious?" Because she seemed pretty serious.

"I don't joke about Winnie the Pooh, Calliope," she told her, expression solemn.

Callie watched for any indication that she was joking and when she didn't find any, she snickered a little. "You're kind of a dork, aren't you?"

She grinned a bit, blushing the slightest bit. "That's beside the point. Do you want him or not?"

"Sure." Callie reached out to take him only for Arizona to pull him back.

"It's a yes or no question, Torres."

"Yes," she said hurriedly, grabbing for the stuffed animal before Arizona could pull him back again. "He's cute."

"He's perfect," the blonde said quickly.

Callie narrowed her eyes at her. "Are you sure you can go without him for a night?"

"No," she answered truthfully. "But like I said, you probably need him more than I do so I'll just deal."

The taller woman wasn't so sure about that, but she wasn't going to say anything. "Thank you. This is really sweet of you." Especially since she got the feeling that Arizona would be struggling tonight without her usual bed companion.

"I do what I can," she tried to shrug it off. "But you should probably take him and go right now before I change my mind. He's kind of my baby."

"I kind of noticed," she teased, walking to the door. "But seriously, thank you for your… Pooh."

Arizona laughed loudly. "You're welcome. Treat him well and kiss him goodnight for me, please."

"I will," she promised as she left the apartment.

* * *

Pooh Bear had magic powers, Callie decided when she woke up the next morning feeling like she had just gotten the best sleep of her life even though her alarm was going off at five thirty in the morning. She felt refreshed and rejuvenated like one of those idiotic women in those stupid, unrealistic tampon commercials. The stress of the previous few days was virtually gone from her mind and if Cristina wouldn't have killed her for it, she would have started singing; that was how good she was feeling.

So yes, Pooh Bear clearly had magic powers. No wonder Arizona was so protective of him.

"Why are you smiling?"

She turned to where Cristina was exiting her room and heading for the coffee pot. "Because I can."

"Bambi said you lost a patient." Gee, thanks for bringing it up, Cristina.

"Yeah, I did, but that was yesterday. I have patients who need me today so I can't dwell on what happened yesterday. I can only learn from it," she replied calmly, taking a sip of her coffee.

"That sounds like something Roller Girl would say," the other intern grimaced.

"Who?"

"McHottie," Cristina clarified, disturbed by the large grin on Callie's face that early in the morning. "What is wrong with you?"

"Pooh Bear," she mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing," she said, chuckling a little. "I talked to Dr. Robbins last night and she helped me with some stuff." Which wasn't a complete lie. They did talk and she did help.

"What, is she your new BFF now?" Cristina questioned sarcastically.

"Oh, you know no one can replace you, Cristina," she sent a beaming smile and an exaggerated wink at her roommate.

"Good to know," the Asian woman muttered into her coffee. "Can we go now?"

Callie check the time. If they left now, they'd be half an hour early. "Yeah, let's go."

Getting to the hospital earlier was always such a great decision. She got to be on a case with Dr. Evans, the go-to orthopedic surgeon at Seattle Grace (since Dr. Chang was a dinosaur who mostly kept to the administrative side of the ortho department), and there was nothing better than that. The guy they operated on had ridden his bike off of his roof so a good amount of his bones were broken, which gave the two surgeons a lot to do. They didn't get out of surgery for six hours, but the time flew by for Callie. That was why she had gone to medical school; to fix bones. The fact that she was actually doing it left her breathless every time she thought about it.

And to top it all off, her patient was going to be fine after some rest and intense rehab. So she was pretty much on cloud nine when she got to lunch. Cristina was still upset that Callie had gotten on that case before she did and was currently staring daggers at her from across the table.

"Oh, get over it, Cristina," Meredith laughed at her disgruntled friend. "You don't even like ortho."

"I don't care," she declared petulantly. "I like surgery, and she totally stole that case from me."

"I did not!" Callie exclaimed, laughing. "You're just slow."

"Do you wanna fight me, Torres?" Cristina challenged because she didn't have a comeback to that.

"Don't even go there, Cristina," Meredith warned, endlessly amused by her two friends. "Callie looks like she would break you in half."

"I probably would," Callie agreed, shrugging.

"I saved a baby today," George announced as he and Izzie came to sit down.

Cristina snorted. "You held a retractor."

"Still counts," he said, undeterred.

"Cristina's just mad because she hasn't been in the OR for the past two days," Callie told him, laughing when the mentioned woman threw a fry at her.

Izzie laughed. "Wow, really? I've been in the OR three times in the past two days."

"Bite me," Cristina snapped, standing up. "I'm going to the Pit. Hopefully there was a car wreck."

"You're horrible," the blonde said, unable to keep herself from chuckling.

She only shrugged as she walked away.

"Isn't she on Sloan's service today?" George inquired.

Meredith smirked. "That's why she's going to the Pit."

"Plastics isn't actually all that bad," Callie voiced. "I mean, Sloan leaves much to be desired, but he's had some really interesting cases, or at least he has when I'm on his service."

"Are you considering Plastics?" Izzie wanted to know.

"Ew. What do I look like? Karev? No. I'm definitely going into ortho," she asserted, firmly. "I'm just saying that I can appreciate plastics as a specialty, the non-superficial part of it anyway."

"Are you sure it's not because of McSteamy?" She teased.

Meredith laughed at the fantastically screwed up face Callie made. "Dr. Robbins warned her away from Sloan our first day here so I don't think that's it."

"Yeah, I heard they were dating," Izzie said.

Callie struggled not to laugh at that. "They're not."

"How do you know?" George queried.

"Because I live across the hall from them and―"

"Wait, they live together?" He interrupted in shock.

"Yeah, they do," she confirmed. "Anyway, she's a lesbian so they're definitely not dating. She's just really good friends with him and Shepherd."

"Talking about me?"

All four interns jumped at the sound of the perky voice.

Callie glanced up to see the subject of their conversation grinning down at her. "Hey. Yeah, we were, kind of. George told us you saved a baby today."

"I save babies every day and that's so not what you were talking about," Arizona contradicted, giggling. "But that's okay because I actually just wanted to ask about last night."

"Oh, yeah! He was wonderful, the perfect little gentleman," she said, smiling when Arizona laughed harder. "Why didn't you tell me he had magical healing powers?"

"Well, good! I'm glad," she enthused, incredibly pleased. "And that would have ruined the surprise, but I'm really, really happy he could help. Now you know why I was so reluctant to let him go."

"Uh, yeah. Where can I get one?" Callie joked.

Arizona winked. "Now you know I can't share all my secrets, Calliope. I'll be by to pick him back up tonight." And with that, she wheeled off.

"Um… are you and Dr. Robbins… you know?" Izzie wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"No," Callie chuckled nervously. "I'm straight. I like men. She just helped me with something last night because she's a nice person."

Meredith nodded along. "It's true. Last week when I was on Dr. Robbins' service, she came down here to get one of her patient's jello because she _wanted_ to. And the nurses love her so that says enough. What did she do for you last night, Cal?"

She debated on telling them that Arizona had let her borrow her Pooh Bear, but decided that she'd rather not let them know she'd slept with a stuffed animal last night. "We just talked a little and she let me borrow something of hers. Speaking of borrowing things, Meredith, you need to come get your coffee cup because if it stays at mine any longer, it's becoming an honorary member of my coffee mug collection."

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you have a coffee mug collection," the dirty blonde said, amused. "I'll be by tonight. What time do you get off?"

"Eight thirty, so any time after that is fine."

"Will Dr. Robbins be there?" She jested.

Brown eyes rolled. "Shut up."

* * *

_Here we go, going it alone_  
_Into the dark and wonderful unknown,_  
 _Let us go, let us go._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was longer than I thought it'd be. I hope you like it and maybe next chapter will be even longer. Who knows?
> 
> Lyrics: Wonderful Unknown by Ingrid Michaelson
> 
> ~esthropp


	3. I Lack a Frame

_I lack a frame to put you in  
When you're an ocean and a rock away._

* * *

"Mer, are you staying for dinner?" Callie asked as she held up her phone.

"Yeah."

"Okay." She made a quick call to order two medium pepperoni pizzas.

"You didn't get that weird cheese-less crap this time, did you?" Cristina demanded to know when her roommate got off the phone.

She rolled her eyes. "No, I did not. And it's not crap. It's good."

"It's weird," the other woman reiterated.

"Whatever, Cristina."

"When is Dr. Robbins coming over?"

Callie shot a look at her blonde friend. "Why are you so interested?"

Meredith sighed and flopped down on the sofa. "Because she's one of Derek's best friends and he wants to formally introduce me as the person he's dating to her and Sloan, and it's kind of freaking me out."

"The girlfriend part or the meeting the best friends part?" She inquired.

"Both," Meredith groaned.

"Well, Sloan is flirty and inappropriate, but harmless and ridiculous so you don't have to worry about him much," Callie told her, pausing to consider her next words. "Arizona's different though. I'm not too sure how that's gonna work out. Maybe you could try to talk to her when she gets here."

"What am I supposed to talk to her about? I doubt we have anything in common," she complained. "She's all shiny and happy and perky, and I'm all… well, I'm not."

Callie shrugged. "You'd be surprised."

"And I guess you're just an Arizona Robbins expert, aren't you?" She teased.

"No, I hardly know her," the brunette scoffed. "But we have talked enough for me to safely say that she is full of surprises. So, you know, you two may have more in common than you think."

"And on that note," Cristina declared loudly from the kitchen. "I'm bringing out the tequila."

"I'm gonna pass for now," Callie said. "I don't want to be tripping over myself like a drunk sorority girl when Arizona gets here."

"I bet you were in a sorority, weren't you?" Meredith's eyes were narrowed in playful suspicion.

She ducked her head, blushing. "That's neither here, nor there."

"Oh, my god, you were! You were one of those girls!"

Callie rolled her eyes. Great, now she had gotten Cristina started. She settled back into the sofa for what was sure to be a long, but entertaining night.

And she was right. The night was entertaining. They ate pizza and drank tequila and talked about who was sleeping with who at the hospital. They watched reruns of Friends because who didn't like watching reruns of Friends? They even talked a little bit about their lives pre-Seattle Grace, which was admittedly very enlightening for everyone. But at no point during the evening did they get a visit from their pediatric Attending.

Cristina and Meredith had drifted into Cristina's room and passed out around midnight and Callie tried to stay awake just in case Arizona showed up, but she could barely keep her eyes open. She didn't drink too much, but alcohol had a tendency to make her drowsy. Obviously Arizona got held up at the hospital or something so Callie stumbled into her room, put on her pajamas and climbed into bed. With Pooh Bear, of course.

She had only been sleeping for what felt like ten minutes when she felt someone shaking her. She grumbled and swatted the person away, but they just kept shaking her.

"Go away," she slurred sleepily.

"Calliope."

Wait.

"Arizona?" She questioned in a mumble, cracking an eye open. Sure enough, she could make out bright eyes and light hair in the darkness of her bedroom. "What are you doing here? It's the middle of the night."

"I know it's the middle of the night, Calliope, thank you," the blonde retorted sassily. "And I'm sorry I'm so late. My surgery ran late and then Mark― and then a bunch other stuff that you don't really care about happened. I'm here to get Pooh. Also, you should start locking your door. I could be a burglar."

Callie's open eye stared blearily for a moment. "I only caught about half of that."

Arizona huffed. "Can I have my Pooh back, please?"

"Now?" Callie whined, unwilling to hand the cuddly little bear over when she was _so_ comfortable. "It's the middle of the night."

"So we've established."

"Okay, why are you being so sassy with me?" She muttered, irked at the unnecessary attitude she was getting. "You're the one who broke into my apartment in the middle of the night and woke me out of my sleep to ask me for a teddy bear."

"I did not break into your apartment, the door was unlocked," Arizona pointed out in a harsh whisper. "And if you say it's the middle of the night one more time, I'm gonna smother you with your own pillow."

"Arizona, go to bed," Callie sighed, going to roll over so that her back was to the other woman, but the small hand on her shoulder prevented that.

"That's what I was trying to do," she waved her hand over her body and Callie barely registered the fact that she was seeing her boss in her underwear. "When I remembered that Pooh was still over here so I came to get him back."

The Latina opened her mouth to reiterate that _it was the middle of the fucking night_ , but she didn't know Arizona that well and she very well might strangle her if she said it again. "But I was sleeping."

"Yeah, but I want my bear back." Clearly she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Letting out the most put upon sigh she could possibly manage, Callie flipped the comforter back on the other side of the bed. "Get in."

"Excuse me?"

"I said get in," she repeated, letting her eyes slid shut as sleep begin to take her again. "Go to sleep."

"But―"

"No, no, no, no. No buts, Arizona. I'm not giving him back because it is very late and I am very comfortable so get in bed and go to sleep." Her tone, though laced with fatigue, held no room for argument. So despite her better judgment, Arizona climbed over the prone intern, smirking when she received an annoyed grunt for her efforts. She slipped under the comforter and reached out for her stuffed animal, which was firmly in Callie's grasp. Instead of releasing the bear, a tan arm reached out and pulled the smaller woman closer so she had access to him. "Now, go to sleep, sassy lady."

* * *

The first thing that Callie noticed when she woke up was that she was not alone. Sometimes that happened though, except for the fact that she distinctly remembered going to bed alone last night. She had stayed in with Meredith and Cristina last night and she knew for a fact that they were both in Cristina's room. Trying to recall anything that might have happened later in the night, she vaguely came up with snippets of conversation that contained the phrase "the middle of the night."

Mentally shaking that away, she decided to take stock of her situation. Opening her eyes, she was immediately assaulted with a mass of curly golden hair and became aware of just how intertwined her body was with her sleeping companion's. One of her arms was curled around Arizona's waist and her hand rested against the bare skin on the small of her back under her tank top. Arizona had one leg hooked around one of Callie's and one of her hands fisted the material of Callie's night shirt.

"Good morning." She felt the greeting whispered across her clavicle where Arizona's face was tucked into the crook of her neck.

"Good morn―hi, um―you stayed." Apparently she was a babbling idiot in the morning now. Terrific. "I mean, good morning." Her fumbling earned her a giggle and in retaliation, she poked Arizona's side, resulting in even more giggles. "Shut up, it's early. Actually, what time is it? Did my alarm go off?"

Arizona uncurled herself from around Callie just enough to reach out and check the time on her phone. "It's a little after six." She put her phone back down on the nightstand and snuggled back into her original position, but leaned her head back so she was face to face with the brunette.

Callie groaned at her answer and threw her head back dramatically. "Ugh, it's too early. I don't have to go in until nine. Why am I awake?"

The pediatric surgeon bit her lip to keep her laughter at bay. "You sure are a ball of sunshine in the morning."

Callie lifted a dark eyebrow at her in disbelief. "Are you serious, right now? It's six in the morning, Arizona."

"I know what time it is, Calliope."

"Exactly. I'm allowed to a little bit out of it," she reasoned, wondering why the hell she was even having a conversation before eight in the morning. "Are you like a morning person or something?"

Arizona snorted. "Oh god, no. Nothing like that. I just like waking up. Not everyone gets to do that, you know? I'm just thankful, I guess."

Callie fixed her with a narrow eyed stare. "That was a surprisingly thoughtful answer."

"You're surprised that I'm thoughtful? Thanks, Callie."

"That's not what I meant," she whined, playfully jostling the body in her arms. "Stop teasing me. It's early."

"So you've said," Arizona drawled, fighting off laughter. "First it was "it's the middle of the night" and now it's "it's early." Does this go on all day long or is just for special occasions like this one?"

"Jerk," Callie muttered softly, clenching her fist. The action caused her blunt nails to gently rake across the blonde's lumbar vertebrae and an unexpectedly strong tremor moved down Arizona's spine, her body visibly shivering before going slack in the brunette's arms.

She released the tiniest of moans, blushing furiously despite trying to play off her slight embarrassment. "Be careful, I'm sensitive."

The Latina huffed out a laugh. "So I see." She slid the pads of her fingers across Arizona's lower back once more and watched in fascination as the smaller surgeon practically melted into the bed. "You're like a little kitten," she cooed, continuing the action.

"'M not. It's just soothing to me," she all but purred, sinking further into Callie's hold, her eyes fluttering rapidly in an effort to stay open.

After a minute or so of silence and Callie rubbing a gentle pattern up and down Arizona's back, the intern spoke. "Hey, why isn't this weird or awkward?"

"Because it's just not," she quipped easily. "Plus, there's no reason for this to be weird or awkward."

Seriously? "Um, except for the fact that you're my boss and we literally just slept together and we're not wearing pants."

Arizona huffed. "Do you _want_ it to be weird and awkward, Callie?"

"Well, no."

"Well, then why are you questioning it? Let it be."

"Do you sleep with interns often? Is that why this isn't a big deal to you?" Callie questioned, feeling put off when the pediatric surgeon did nothing but giggle at her. "What? It's not funny. I'm serious."

"I know; that's why it's so funny," she made no effort to hide her mirth. "No, Calliope, I don't go around sleeping with interns. If you must know, you're the only person I've slept with in five days."

"Oh, wow. Five whole days. I feel special," the raven haired woman muttered sarcastically.

"Shut up." Arizona nudged her softly, sighing as Callie's fingers started to apply more pressure. "Are you gonna shave soon? Because your legs are kind of prickly."

"Oh, my god."

xXx

Arizona didn't have to be at the hospital until an hour before Callie, and Cristina and Meredith were already gone when they got out of bed so she lingered for bit. Callie had slipped on a pair of shorts and started the coffee maker while Arizona sat at the counter grinning, pantsless, and holding Pooh against her midsection.

"What are you smiling at?" Callie grunted, shuffling around the kitchen to find something somewhat suitable for breakfast. "Do you like cereal?"

"I'm always smiling, Calliope. And yes, I do like cereal. Oh, are you going to feed me?" A great night of sleep and breakfast in the morning? It was just cereal, but still a delight.

"Well, you're still here so yeah, I'm gonna feed you. What kind do you want?" She pulled out two bowls and a couple of spoons. "We have Cinnamon Chex, regular Cheerios, Multigrain Cheerios, Lucky Charms, some chocolate stuff, Rice Crispy, and some oats cereal."

"Regular Cheerios would be nice," she said. She loved Cheerios.

"We only have 1% milk. Is that okay?"

"That'll be fine."

"Here," Callie handed her the jug of milk after she poured it on her own cereal. "I would pour it for you, but I don't know how much you like and Cristina gets weird if I pour too much."

Arizona laughed and poured the milk into her bowl. "Derek wants me to meet Meredith Grey, like as his girlfriend, not his intern."

"Yeah, she told me about that," she nodded. "She's nervous about meeting you."

"She's nervous? Why?"

"I think you scare her," Callie offered, spooning cereal into her mouth. Actually, she was pretty positive Meredith was afraid of Arizona. In fact, a lot of the interns were afraid of her. "I think you scare all of the interns actually, which you know, is kinda weird."

"Well, you haven't been on my service yet," Arizona reminded her.

She pondered that. "Yeah, I wonder what that's about. I wanted to ask Bailey about it, but I didn't want her to yell at me."

"Oh, I requested to keep you off my service for the time being."

"Wait, what? You… you've been keeping me off your service? Like on purpose?" For reasons unknown to Callie, her stomach dropped and her expression tightened in shock and disbelief. She couldn't understand why she was so hurt though; she didn't even want to go into Peds. "Why?"

"Karev, he's totally going into Peds with me," Arizona nodded firmly, certainty evident in her tone. "No matter what he says, he's definitely a Peds guy so I've been monopolizing him. And Grey, she's surprisingly decent with the tiny humans, O'Malley's fantastic with them and not as incompetent as I thought, and Stevens, she's pretty good, too. Yang's not getting anywhere near my kids anytime soon and I know you've been wrapped up in Ortho and Neuro so I told Bailey that until further notice you wouldn't be on my service." She belatedly realized what it sounded like. "Why? Do you wanna come to Peds?"

"Uh, no," the intern croaked over the lump in her throat. "Not if you don't want me there."

"I want you there if you wanna be there, Callie," she told her honestly. "I didn't think you'd be interested, but I'll tell Bailey to put you on my service this week."

"So I'll finally get to see what all the fuss is about," Callie remarked in order to cover her previous upset. She actually felt a kind of silly now.

"Yup," Arizona beamed happily. "And you can tell Meredith Grey that she doesn't need to freak out about meeting me. As long as she's not a psycho we shouldn't have a problem."

Callie laughed, almost showering her in milk. "I'll let her know."

* * *

"Grey, why are you being so awkward?"

Arizona and Mark were at their apartment having dinner with Derek and Meredith Grey after she had been formally introduced to them as Derek's girlfriend. Personally Arizona didn't see what the big whoop was, but Derek was her best friend so she'd just deal with his weird need to… do whatever it was this dinner was supposed to do. Mark shared her sentiment since he didn't see what the big deal was either. So he was dating his intern? That was all fine and good, and Derek was happy so he wasn't going to say anything about this unnecessary, in his and Arizona's opinion, dinner.

Meredith, it seemed, was way out of her depth. She had never had a boyfriend long enough or serious enough to be formally introduced to his friends. And these weren't just any friends; they were Derek's _best_ friends and they were her bosses. One wrong move at dinner could jeopardize her relationship and her career so she was treading softly. So softly in fact that she hardly said anything throughout dinner and when she did speak, her words were stilted and curt as if she was afraid of saying too much, which she was. That was what led to Arizona's very blunt question.

"Arizona…" Derek started to stay.

"No, Derek, it's fine," Meredith cut in, taking a deep breath. "She's right. I'm just nervous."

"Right, okay. I get that, but you don't have to be so nervous that you don't talk," Arizona said, chuckling before she took a sip of her wine. "We don't bite."

"Hard," Mark added, smirking.

Meredith decided to ignore his remark. "Yes, but you're my boss. Bosses. I don't want to do or say anything that's gonna effect my career."

"Nothing that happens here has anything to do with that happens at work." The blonde shot looks at her two friends. "At least with me, that is. Some of us can be professional." Both men made noises of protest at the jab and she laughed.

Just as Derek was about to respond, a pager went off.

"It's mine," Arizona sighed, picking up the offending device and reading the page. "I have to go," she murmured, standing from her seat and heading for the door. "This was nice. Let's not do it again for a good, long time, shall we?"

She heard Mark's loud laughter through the door.

It took ten minutes to get to the hospital, five minutes longer than she would have liked, because the goddamn light took forever to change to red so she could cross the street. She entered the ER through the ambulance bay and went up to the front desk.

"Dr. Evans paged?" She questioned the nurse at the desk who was filling out charts.

"He went up to OR 2," the man informed her.

"Thank you," she said politely and headed off to OR 2.

Callie and Dr. Evans greeted her when she got to the scrub room. "Hey, you," the aspiring ortho doctor smiled.

"Hey yourself," Arizona returned the smile, scrubbing in. "What have we got?"

"Kid fell out of her treehouse. The dad said it was about a fifteen foot drop," Dr. Evans informed her as he strode toward the OR. "You ready to rumble, Robbins?"

"Aren't I always?" She shot back easily as he walked away. As soon as his back was turned, her face screwed up into a distasteful expression. _Ugh, that guy._

"But he's a great surgeon," Callie giggled, properly interpreting Arizona's expression. As she should, she spent most of her time at work with him. And god, was he an ass.

"I know, but god, what an ass," she scoffed, unknowingly echoing the intern's thoughts. Shaking it off, she finished scrubbing in and looked at Callie. "Time to show me what you're made of, Torres."

"Prepare to be dazzled," Callie smirked.

xXx

"I have to say, Callie, I am really impressed by you," Arizona commented five hours later as the pair was walking out of the hospital. "You handled that surgery beautifully."

"You don't have to sound so surprised, you know," the intern scoffed playfully, nudging her companion. "I told you he was a good teacher."

Arizona latched onto the arm that nudged her as she giggled. "I know, but I've never seen you in action before. You're really talented. And he may be a good teacher, but it takes a great student to really learn and apply this stuff. So Calliope, yes, I am impressed. I can't wait to see how you do in Peds." She bounced in excitement while they walked.

Callie laughed at her boss's antics. "You're really excited."

"Yeah," she giggled sheepishly as they crossed the street to their apartment building. "Sometimes I get like this when I'm really tired."

"I mostly get―"

"Grumpy," she supplied. "I remember."

"Grumpy? Really?" Didn't she hear Izzie Stevens say that once?

"Yes, Calliope. Grumpy," she repeated with an eye roll. People were forever getting after her about her "childish" language, but she worked in pediatrics, for Pete's sake. What did they expect?

The two of them had stepped on the elevator when Callie spoke again. "Why do you call me that?"

"Call you what? Calliope?" Arizona raised her eyebrows in amusement. "Because that's your name."

"But everyone else calls me Callie," she said.

"I like to be an individual," Arizona stated, shrugging. "Besides, I like Calliope better. It fits you better than Callie does. Do you sing?"

The brunette snorted in laughter at the question. "Not well."

"That's a shame," she sighed as the elevator doors opened on their floor. "Well, _Calliope_ , who can't sing well," _giggle_ "I suppose this is where we part ways for the night."

Callie had a hard time reigning in her chuckles at the dramatics. "I suppose it is. But it looks like someone left a note for you or Sloan." She pointed to the green sticky note that was placed under the apartment number on the door.

Arizona took one look at the note and groaned. Quite loudly, in fact. "Damn it, Mark."

"What is it?" Now she was curious, especially if a little green piece of paper could provoke such a reaction from the blonde.

"It's, ugh, he has a woman over and according to this note, if I want to get any sleep tonight –or what's left of it anyway, I should go sleep somewhere else," she expounded, her frown deepening remarkably as she went on. "We were _just_ having dinner with Derek and Grey a few hours ago. How did he manage to‒ you know what; never mind. It's Mark."

"Okay, that's not a problem. You can just sleep with me again," Callie offered, ignoring how it sounded.

"Really?" Arizona asked hopefully. "You don't mind?"

"If I minded, I wouldn't have offered," she said.

Arizona nearly squealed as she reached out to hug the taller woman. "You are the best, Calliope."

"Yeah, that's what they tell me," she smirked.

* * *

_My fingers wrap around your words  
And take the shape of games we play._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I could be a burger." 
> 
> Ocean and A Rock by Lisa Hannigan
> 
> ~esthropp


	4. The Tallest Tales

_Liar, liar, you're such a great big liar  
With the tallest tales that I have ever heard._

* * *

"You are really comfortable to sleep on," Callie mumbled to her companion the next morning as they shuffled around her room getting ready for work.

Arizona didn't even pause in her task of pulling her jeans up her legs; she just smirked. "I kind of noticed when you nuzzled me when I tried to wake you up." She had woken up half on her back with Callie's cheek pressed softly against her breast and had quietly broken into a fit of surprised, drowsy giggles that had prompted a groan from the other woman. When she had actually calmed down enough to shake Callie awake, Callie had grumbled some unintelligible protest and buried her face in between Arizona's breasts.

It was an interesting way to start the day to say the least.

"Whatever," the intern rushed to cover her almost embarrassment. "You're welcome for the compliment."

"Thank you, Callie," Arizona beamed.

The two of them spent the rest of their time getting ready in a comfortable silence. It wasn't until they were leaving the apartment that Arizona spoke again, telling Callie that she wanted to get something from her own apartment before they left. It was only supposed to take a moment.

"I just wanna grab a‒wow…" the blonde began to tell her companion as they entered the apartment only to halt in her tracks at the sight of a nearly nude woman standing in her kitchen. The abruptness of the action caused Callie to stumble and run into her back, grabbing onto her waist to keep them from falling.

The woman, whose burnt orange red hair was gathered up in a ponytail, turned away from the refrigerator and greeted the two doctors with a dazzling smile. Her eyes zeroed in on Arizona and her smile widened. "You must be Arizona."

"And you must be Mark's friend," the addressed woman countered, knowing exactly how this woman knew her name. Mark had a habit of introducing his dates to Arizona via her picture on the wall, whether she was home or not. It was his way of gauging whether or not he could potentially score a threesome at a later date. It was gross and objectifying and annoying, but until she could find a way to take the picture down, there wasn't much should could about it. And based on the look she was receiving from Mark's companion, there was a distinct possibility that a threesome was in her friend's future. Just not one that involved Arizona.

"Nicole," was the reply she recieved, along with a wink as the redhead dug out a strawberry from the container she had pulled from the refrigerator.

"Well Nicole, those are my strawberries," Arizona informed her, though not unpleasantly.

Nicole looked up, appearing altogether too sultry for Arizona to be comfortable with, the tip of a strawberry between her thin, red lips and a heavy lidded stare. "Mark didn't mention that."

Arizona chuckled in an effort to clear her throat. "No, he wouldn't have. I was just coming over to get them before work," she explained simply, not making any move to reach for the container of fruit.

"I have strawberries," Callie finally chimed in, having been silently observing the interaction before her with a sense of interest. Although she knew her boss was a lesbian, seeing it for herself was an entirely different experience. "Well, Cristina has strawberries, but I can pick some up after work tonight."

"No need," Nicole told her and with a smirk, sauntered up to the two women to hand over the berries. "I saw some pineapple in there, too. Do you mind if I steal a few pieces?"

Arizona grinned, taking her strawberries. "Go for it. Callie has plenty," she commented lightly, and Callie felt a slight pressure against her front as Arizona leaned back into her.

Nicole lifted an eyebrow in intrigue. "I take it you're Callie?"

"That'd be me," she confirmed slowly.

"Your girlfriend?" The redhead addressed Arizona that time.

"Ah," Arizona snuck a quick glance back at Callie and faltered.

"That'd be me," Callie repeated the words the exact same way she had moments before. _What the fuck, Callie…_

Nicole took a moment to let her gaze travel up and down Arizona's body, and then bit her lip in an overly sensual manner. "Mmm, that's too bad."

"Right. Well, we're gonna go now because we have‒ we have work and stuff. Come on, Callie." The blonde grabbed one of the hands resting on her waist and all but charged toward the door.

"It was nice meeting you, Arizona," Nicole called after them.

"Likewise," Arizona managed before she shut the door behind them. Callie watched as she blew out a breath and shook her head as if trying to clear something out of it.

"That was kind of rude, wasn't it?" The brunette commented after a moment of silence. When all Arizona did was stare back at her blankly, she continued on. "That she only said bye to you, especially after I told her I was your girlfriend. That's like, extra rude. If we really were dating, I'd be offended, right?"

"Calliope," the shorter woman released a puff of laughter as she turned and started walking to the elevator. "Let's go."

"But you'd be offended, right?"

xXx

It was Callie's first day on Arizona's service and their first case together rolled into the ER at about the same time the surgeons themselves entered the lobby of the hospital. It was an eight year old little girl with a broken clavicle and a dislocated shoulder. Arizona shot a look over at Callie, only to find the other woman trying to hide a smirk. She simply rolled her bright blues and wheeled their patient off to surgery.

The surgery took an hour longer than it should have due to the adverse reaction the patient had to the anesthesia, but all in all it was a good surgery, and both Callie and Arizona scrubbed out feeling pretty great. They were on their way to the coffee cart to get their caffeine fill when Mark strolled in looking as smug as ever. He saw them and his grin turned downright devious as he made his way over.

"So I hear you two are girlfriends," he announced softly‒softly for Mark anyway‒ without preamble.

"You can thank Callie for that," Arizona was quick to say before she ordered and paid for their coffees.

Callie gaped momentarily. "I panicked." At the raised eyebrows she received from her head of Peds, she amended her statement. "We‒well, maybe I didn't exactly panic, but I didn't know what to say."

"So you told her you were dating Robbins?" Mark chuckled. "Nice."

"Well, Arizona wasn't saying anything," Callie defended.

"I was thinking," Arizona retorted.

"Okay, but when someone asks you if you have a girlfriend, you usually don't have to think about it," the raven haired woman pointed out as Arizona handed her a cup of coffee. "You hesitated and I didn't know what to say so I just said the first thing that came to my mind."

"Which wasn't no?" The blonde had to ask.

Callie shot her an unimpressed look. "Obviously not."

"That's very heterosexual of you, Callie," Arizona teased, getting a loud clap of laughter out of her best friend.

"I'm leaving if you're gonna be this way," the Latina pouted and feigned walking away from them, only to have the laughing peds surgeon pull her back.

"Oh, come on. I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I promise." Her continued bouts of laughter belayed her words.

Rolling her eyes, Callie took a sip of her coffee. "Yeah, I can tell. Anyway, it doesn't matter because we'll probably never see her again anyway."

"Actually…" Mark drew the word out, drawing the attention of both women. "That's not exactly true. We're going out tonight."

"Really?" Callie asked at the same time as Arizona's "You like her?"

"Yes, I like her so far," he said, emphasizing the last two words before Arizona could start teasing him. "And yes, really."

"That's…" At the look Mark sent her, Arizona elongated the word and let it trail off as she thought of something probably less offensive and or teasing to say. Trading a short glace with Callie, she suddenly smiled. "I'm happy for you, Mark, I am. But it's gonna be weird, you know? Your… Nicole being around thinking me and Calliope are a couple, while still kinda wanting to get in my pants."

"Oh, there's no "kinda" about it. She still definitely wants to bang you," he clarified with a roguish smirk.

"She told you that?" Callie sounded nothing short of outraged. "Still? Even after thinking I'm‒ I'm entirely offended, Arizona. As your fake girlfriend and as a woman, I am offended and you cannot tell you me you wouldn't be if you were in my position."

The ivory skinned woman ducked her head for a moment to hide her grin before she looked at Callie with amused, yet reassuring eyes. "Of course I would be, Callie. Very offended. And as my fake girlfriend, I thoroughly appreciate you being offended at least partly on behalf of our fake relationship." She had to strain herself to say that with a straight face and without even a modicum of mockery. "That being said, I can play pretend if you can."

Two pairs of eyebrows skyrocketed, but it was the owner of the darker pair who spoke. "Really?"

"Yeah," she drawled, taking a long sip of her coffee. "Or I can tell her we broke up next time I see her when she asks."

"You mean if?"

Arizona snorted, not even trying to conceal her humor. "No, Callie. I mean, when because I saw the way she was looking at me, so she'll ask."

Her words caused a scowl to form on the brunette's face. "That bothers me and I know it shouldn't because we're not really together, but it still sort of does. It's just the- it's the principle of the thing, you know? She thinks we're in a relationship and yet she would still go after you? What the hell? That's totally fucked up, right? I'm not just overreacting about this partially fictional situation, am I?"

"You are always entitled to feel however you feel, Calliope," Arizona stated, smiling softly at the intern. "I do think you're being a bit excitable about this, but I also find it entertaining, if a bit charming."

"I hate to break up this little fake relationship comfort fest, but I kinda need to know the game plan on this so I don't accidentally screw it up," Mark pointed out, looking between the two.

"It's up to Callie. I'm fine with whatever," Arizona was quick to say.

"Wait, why do I have to pick?" Callie wanted to know.

"Because I'm a lesbian and you are not. I could tell from this morning you've had little to no romantic experience with another woman. I completely acknowledge and respect that, and I don't want you to do something you're not comfortable with," the peds surgeon explicated succinctly.

Callie considered that for several seconds. "Okay, fair enough, but I did kind of get you into this so I think you should have a say, too."

"I do have a say," she nodded. "I'm saying I don't have a preference so you get to pick."

"That's lame," Callie pouted.

"If you don't wanna do anything, Callie, then that's what we'll do. It truly isn't that big of a deal to me."

"Fine, whatever. I'll be your fake girlfriend, but for the record, I resent this way of making decisions," she felt the need to voice.

"Noted," Arizona rolled her eyes. "Though for the record, it won't be happening again."

* * *

So the thing was, even though Callie knew she was definitely going into ortho, she liked peds. She really liked peds actually. Or maybe she just liked working with Arizona. Either way, she hadn't had so much fun at work before yesterday, which she found a little interesting. Being on Evans' service in ortho gave her a thrill; a rush that she hadn't felt while working in any other department, but the past two days working in peds gave her a warm settled feeling that ortho didn't. It was different and exciting, and she wasn't exactly sure what to do about it.

On a completely different note, she suddenly understood why all the other interns were afraid of Arizona. The blonde was _intense_. Like, scarily so. She had pretty strict OR protocols and she wouldn't hesitate to call someone out if they messed something up. But she was an angel with her patients and their parents. She was so caring and considerate and gentle with them; it was incredible to witness. And Callie was able to hold her own with kids, if she did say so herself.

"Are you gonna eat those?"

The ortho hopeful was brought out of her pondering by her roommate. The curly haired woman was pointing to the container of fries on Callie's tray.

"Yes, Cristina. I'm going to eat them," she answered, rolling her eyes. To emphasize her point, she popped a fry into her mouth.

"I thought you didn't like fries," Cristina glared.

"You thought wrong." Honestly, she didn't have a taste for fries, but she just liked annoying Cristina when she got the chance. She saw it as retribution for Cristina's messiness at the apartment.

"Whatever," the Korean woman rolled her eyes and sat back.

"How's Peds?" George inquired, chuckling at their interaction.

"It's great. I kind of love it," she said, smiling. "A lot."

"Have you thought of specializing in peds with ortho?" He suggested.

"A little bit," Callie confessed, chewing thoughtfully on a chicken tender. "I don't know yet though. I have a lot of time to think about it, but I'm not opposed. I just don't know if I could work on kids all the time. I really don't know how Arizona does it."

Cristina rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. She was made to work with kids. Could you imagine her anywhere else?"

"Well, she is also certified in cardio," George reminded her, smirking.

Cristina scowled.

"What are we talking about?" Izzie asked as she sat down next to George.

"Nothing," Callie answered quickly. "What's up?"

"I need more ice and chips," she declared.

"Who else did you invite?" He questioned, referring to the supposedly small gathering for Izzie's boyfriend at Meredith's house.

"Izzie, we said the party was jocks only: surgery, trauma, plastics," Cristina said. "Who else?"

The blonde avoided her gaze. "Just some people from peds."

Cristina groaned. "You invited the preschoolers to Meredith's house. Next thing you'll say you invited the shrinks." Izzie pointedly looked away and Cristina let out a put upon sigh. "She invited mental defects. This party is gonna be DOA."

"You know, Meredith thinks this is just gonna be a small get together to meet your boyfriend," Callie felt the need to add since the guest list for the party seemed to be getting a little out of hand. "Have you cleared this with her?"

"No, but I will," Izzie murmured only to receive three incredulous stares. "I will!"

"You're coming, right?" Cristina asked Callie.

The Latina shrugged. "It depends on how late I get out of here."

"Are you inviting Robbins?" She queried.

"Why would she invite Dr. Robbins?" George and Izzie wondered at the same time.

"Because we're friends, kind of." She was so not even gonna try to explain that situation. "But I don't know, I don't think she'd come. I'll invite her though, I guess."

"I thought you said no peds," Izzie piped up.

"You already dropped the ball on that one," Cristina reminded her, standing up to leave. "Later, losers."

xXx

"Hey, are you two going to the party at Meredith's?" Derek strode into the open conference room where his two best friends were eating and doing paperwork.

"I'm too old to go to a kegger," Arizona replied immediately, not looking up from the form she was perusing.

"Eh," Mark hummed the word in a way that showed his uncertainty at her statement. The action caused Derek to chuckle. Ever since the trio had become friends, the two men had an ongoing joke between them where they made sure to tease her about her young age at nearly every opportunity. It had taken her three years to get them to stop calling her Doogie Howser MD. And yes, they used to say the whole name.

"Shut up," she sneered, resisting the urge to throw something at him. "Why do you wanna know if we're going? Are you going?"

"I don't know yet. I'm trying to get Meredith to go on a date with me instead," Derek explained, leaning back against the window.

"The fact you even have to try," Mark laughed, earning a swift kick to the side of his chair. "I thought this thing was invite only. We weren't invited."

"Torres will probably invite you," the neurosurgeon predicted. "Well, she'll probably invite Arizona." He shot the blonde a charming smile. "She is your girlfriend after all."

Blue eyes rolled in response. "And you're a child. Like I said, I'm not going. Why would I wanna spend my night surrounded by drunk interns?"

"Well, some of them are about your age, aren't they?" Derek teased. "You'd fit right in."

"I don't know why I bother talking to either of you," she muttered peevishly, fixing her gaze back on her administrative forms.

"Well, Nicole is probably spending the night tonight," Mark let her know.

Arizona's top lip curled back in annoyance. " _Again_? Why don't you guys ever go to her place?"

"Because there is zero chance of her running into you at her place."

She huffed. "She knows that it's not gonna happen, right? You haven't just been letting her think there's a possibility of something happening between us, have you?"

"We‒ell," he stretched.

"Marcus Everett!" She exclaimed, feeling equal parts indignant and disbelief. She shouldn't have been surprised though. That was par of the course for Mark.

"The party, Arizona. We were talking about the party. Can we please get back to that?" Mark spoke firmly in an attempt to distract her. There was a certain tone that Arizona took when she middle named him. It all but promised he could expect some form of reckoning for whatever he had done. It was never as bad as when she brought out his full name though.

"Right, the party," Derek jumped in then, trying to take some of the heat off of the other man. "Arizona, you're going."

"I'm‒ what? No. I'm absolutely not going, Derek. And Mark, don't think you're off the hook," she leveled him with a menacing glare. He was unbelievable sometimes. "Why do you want me to go anyway?"

"I'm hoping if she knows someone's there to watch her house, she'll be more likely to let me take her out," the dark haired man explicated.

Arizona allowed her face to screw up in an expression of irritated confusion. " _Or_ you could go to the party so she can watch her own house and you two can spend time together."

"We're trying to be discreet―"

Both Arizona and Mark let out matching snorts of derision at that statement.

"―and if I show up just to be around her, we'll be found out."

Rolling her eyes once again, Arizona wondered not for the first time how she came to be friends with such silly boys. "You're not criminals, Derek; you're dating. Who cares if people from the hospital know?"

"They'll think I favor her. They'll think she's sleeping with me for surgeries," he worried.

"Well, is she?" Mark asked.

"Are you trying to get punched?" Arizona seriously wanted to know.

He raised his hands in surrender. "I'm just kidding."

Deciding to forego engaging him any further, she turned her attention back to Derek. "You know, she is your girlfriend and if this thing gets more serious, people are eventually gonna find out. And you'll have to tell the chief if you don't want the backlash you're anticipating."

"I know," he sighed, running a hand through his hair. "But I don't wanna think about that right now. I just wanna enjoy her right now without having to worry about all the other stuff. So will you help me or not?"

She blew out an exasperated breath, silently counting to three. "Fine. I'll go to the party, but you're going, too." She pushed on when Derek opened his mouth to protest. "No. It'll be less suspicious if we're both there. You're going. It's nonnegotiable. If I go, you go."

"Fine, but I'm driving."

Arizona chuckled, going back to her paperwork. "Not even if you were an award-winning racecar driver, Dr. McDreamy."

* * *

"I am too old for this," Arizona repeated as she and Derek stood outside of Meredith Grey's house. The party was already in full swing, they noted when they pulled up in Arizona's car.

"You're a fetus," Derek countered swiftly, the response coming before he even thought to say it. Placing an arm around her back, he quickly ushered her inside and they were immediately assaulted by a wide variety of sounds, sights, and smells.

"Arizona! You're here!"

And then she was suddenly being pulled further into the house until they reached the kitchen. She had made sure to keep a tight grip on Derek's jacket so as not to lose him in the chaos. Thus, the three of them filed into the kitchen, which was marginally less crowded than the front two rooms of the house.

"Do you guys want a drink?" The not quite drunk, but definitely not sober woman offered, smiling goofily.

"If I'm expected to stay here longer than the next ten minutes," Arizona quipped, but politely declined the shot of tequila presented to her. "I'm driving though so I can't."

"Aww," Callie pulled out an exaggerated pout. "That's no fun."

"I know," she faked a laugh. "The life of a responsible adult."

Derek nudged her in the side and looked at her in amusement. "Will you at least try to have fun?"

"No." The answer was immediate and borderline petulant.

He chuckled. "I'm gonna go find Meredith."

"She'd dancing on the coffee table with Cristina and George," Callie informed her, but her eyes were on Arizona.

Derek nodded and left the kitchen.

The peds surgeon turned to find the intern staring at her with a bemused smile on her face. It made Arizona fidgety. "What?"

"Dance with me." As much as it sounded like a request Callie didn't allow her time to answer before she put down her own drink and proceeded to pull the shorter woman out of the kitchen, into the throng of dancing bodies.

And then they were dancing.

Dancing with Calliope was… an experience to say the least. The woman really knew how to move her hips, and she was insistent on keeping Arizona as close as possible while still keeping the dance safely in the platonic friends category. She also seemed almost insultingly impressed by Arizona's skills and when there was enough room around them, spun the blonde in her arms. And Arizona would be lying if she tried to deny that the way Callie's large hands cradled her hips made her feel a little buzzed.

That was when she knew it was time to go.

"Hey Callie," she twirled her finger around the soft fabric of Callie's shirt and pulled her closer so she could talk and be heard over the loud music. "I think I'm gonna go home now. Do you need a ride?"

"You're leaving already?" The darker skinned woman frowned. The dancing had sobered her up a little bit and the expression was less overstated than before.

"Yeah, I am, but I had fun," she said. "Are you staying?"

Callie nodded. "I think I am. I'll probably stay the night."

"Oh. Then can I have the key to your apartment?" The taller woman leaned back and fixed her with a questioning look, complete with her customary raised eyebrow. Arizona enjoyed that look. "Nicole's with Mark tonight."

That was all the explanation she needed apparently because Callie immediately pointed towards the kitchen. "It's in my bag in the laundry room."

Arizona beamed. "You're a doll. Call me if you need anything." She turned to go, but a hand pulled her back and she saw that Callie was watching her with that same bemused smile from earlier. This time she waited instead of prompting a response.

She was rewarded only a few seconds later as dark brown eyes shone with what could have been gratitude being mistaken for affection. "You really mean that?"

The question made Arizona's faltering smile soften and she nodded because although there was no way she would be taking a page out of Derek's book with regards to interns, she couldn't help but find Calliope Torres kind of enchanting. "I do."

* * *

_Fire, fire, you set my soul on fire,  
Laughing in the corner as it burns…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Liar, Liar by A Fine Frenzy
> 
> ~esthropp


	5. Words Out of the Sky

_She could be easy to find, you see.  
She writes the songs only for you to sing._

* * *

The funny thing was, after Callie agreed to be Arizona's fake girlfriend, she didn't see much of the blonde, let alone the person responsible for the whole charade. In fact, the next time she saw her Attending and Mark's girlfriend person at the same time, was nearly two weeks after the party at Meredith's house. Of course she saw Arizona in passing around the hospital, but they had both been so incredibly busy that they barely had time to sleep before they were back at work. Tonight though, Callie had the night off and instead of spending it at Joe's with Meredith and Cristina, she was spending it in her apartment with Meredith and Cristina.

They were playing some trivia game that Cristina had revamped to include medical facts, and George and Izzie were supposed to be joining them when they got off. Callie didn't know how she felt about Izzie Stevens being in her apartment, but she wasn't going to say anything as long a habit wasn't made of it.

She wasn't really focused on the game because she was straining to listen for any signs of movement outside her door. She was hoping to catch Arizona before she went into her apartment because Callie knew that Mark had Nicole over. Or he had somebody over and she felt it was her duty as Arizona's kind of friend to warn her. But it was going on ten o'clock and the blonde hadn't come home yet, which wasn't entirely unusual for a surgeon; but she was frankly a little concerned because Arizona had gotten to work at six am and it was against hospital policy (thanks to the internal medicine resident who had fainted in the middle of the ICU) for anyone to work more than fourteen hours.

It was when she was contemplating using Arizona's phone number for the first time since she'd programmed it into her phone that she heard the telltale ding of the elevator. _Finally,_ she couldn't help but mentally grouse as she stood up to go to the door.

"Where are you going? The game's not over," Cristina complained.

"I'll be right back," she waved her off and stepped into the hallway, shutting the door behind her to discourage any eavesdropping that would occur if she let it. "Hey."

"Hey," Arizona echoed. "Were you… waiting for me?"

"Yeah, just to tell you that Mark has someone over," Callie explained. "I don't know if it's Nicole, but I think it is. Did you just get off work?"

"Mmm, why?" She asked, a small smile on her lips as she leaned back against her apartment door.

"Because you were there for a long time." Well, no shit, Callie. She rolled her eyes at herself and continued. "Just… you must be really tired if you were― you know what; I don't know what I'm saying. You're an adult. You know what you can handle. I was just worried."

Arizona watched her quietly for several long seconds as she thought. One could say she had been avoiding Calliope after Stevens's party at Meredith's, and one would be partially right. She hadn't made any efforts to seek out the intern's attention, but given the unpredictable nature of their job, she didn't have to work that hard at keeping her distance. She just needed some space to sort her shit out because Calliope was outstandingly gorgeous, to say the least, and Arizona wasn't going down the straight girl road again. Not ever. So she took some time to get her bearings on the whole situation.

She could be friends with Callie. She _could_. She could even do this fake girlfriend thing. It just took her a while to get some perspective on it. Callie was straight and would probably never be interested in Arizona as anything other than a really close friend, if that. And Arizona was fine with that. She could remember that and it would keep her from doing something stupid like falling for Callie. She would absolutely _not_ be doing anything so colossally idiotic. She wasn't Derek, bless his heart.

She was an awesome friend.

Awesome.

"That's very sweet of you, Calliope," she finally said. "I am pretty tired. Did you wanna come in and escort me to my room? It can't hurt to have Nicole see us together. She's been asking about you."

Dark eyebrows furrowed suspiciously. "What about me?"

Arizona smirked. "If you still exist."

"Okay," Callie rolled her eyes, walking over to the amused woman. "Let's do this."

Arizona selected the necessary key on her keychain and entered her apartment, Callie not far behind. To their complete surprise, Mark and Nicole were sitting on the sofa, fully clothed, watching the television. Arizona couldn't remember the last time Mark had watched television with a woman who wasn't her. It was jarring to say the least.

"Hey," she said softly as the pair looked their way. "Is there a game on?"

Nicole grinned at her and she felt Callie's hand slip into hers. "Yeah, you like football?"

"A little," she shrugged. She would watch the occasional game if it was on and she had paperwork to catch up on.

"You should watch it with us," the redhead suggested.

"Thank you," Callie spoke with a note of tension in her voice. "But we're good. Arizona's really tired so we're just gonna…" she trailed off and pointed in the direction of the blonde's bedroom.

"Mmm," Arizona let out a contemplative hum as she peered at Callie. She had such deep brown eyes; they were magical, really. The peds surgeon blinked at the direction of her thoughts. Okay, no. She really, really needed sleep. "Goodnight, guys."

The couple echoed her and she and Callie walked off to her room, where she flopped face down on her bed. It was the nicest feeling in the entire world at that moment. She didn't even feel like taking her clothes off, she was that comfortable.

"Callie, say comfortable," she requested, but since her face was smashed into the bed, her words came out completely garbled.

The intern stared down at her fake girlfriend and laughed. "I have no idea what you just said."

Arizona let out a great big sigh and rolled over onto her back and oh my gosh, that felt fucking incredible. "Say comfortable."

"Why?"

"I wanna hear how you say it."

"For what reason?"

"Because." Yes, Callie, because. That was a perfectly valid reason.

Callie rolled her eyes and decided to give in because she needed to get back to Cristina and Meredith before either of them came looking for her. Or Izzie showed up at her apartment. Both were very undesirable. "Comfortable."

The blonde started grinning in the cutest way, seriously Callie was amazed at how cute she was being. She had part of her face pressed into one of her pillows and she was looking up at Callie like a little puppy. Aww, Arizona was such a puppy, like one of those tiny, hyperactive, yappy ones. The same ones who get into shit they're not supposed to and when you yell at them, they hit you with the huge fucking puppy dog eyes that are impossible to refuse and then they start whimpering a little bit and you're just a goner at that point. Who could ever stay mad at something like that?

"You say it with three syllables instead of four," Arizona stated happily. "I like that."

Sleepy Arizona was so silly, dear lord. "You're so goofy. Where are your night clothes?"

"I don't sleep in clothes," Arizona reminded her.

Callie abruptly stopped in her tracks as she had been heading toward the dresser against the far wall of the bedroom. "You wore a t-shirt when we slept together."

Arizona's grin turned sly. "That's because we were sleeping together."

Oh. _Oh._ "Oh." Why was that significant? A lot of people sleep naked. Just because it was her boss didn't mean anything. Or it shouldn't have, but Callie was kind of stuck on the thought for some reason. "Okay then, take your clothes off."

Dark blonde eyebrows lifted and pearly white teeth bit down on a pink lip, cerulean eyes twinkling with unconcealed laughter.

Callie's eyes widened comically in mortification and a blush blazed across her chest, but she quickly schooled her features into a blank expression and ignored the heat spreading up her neck. "You know what I meant, Arizona."

"I know what you meant," Arizona smirked, snuggling back into her bed. She was _so_ comfortable. "I'll just sleep like this," eyes closing, "I'm too tired to move."

But Callie was already shaking her head. "No, no, no. You'll just wake up in the middle of the night all tangled in your clothes and you'll get all huffy and pissed off and you'll be really uncomfortable."

"Fine," Arizona rolled her eyes because Callie was absolutely, one hundred percent correct in her prediction. "You do it then."

"I do what?"

"You take off my clothes off," the blonde clarified, shrugging. "It's what a good girlfriend would do," she reasoned teasingly.

There was a beat of silence where the taller woman just stared down at her boss, contemplating the best course of action in this situation, because undressing one of her Attendings was just, well, it was grossly inappropriate, but in the current context, was it any more inappropriate than sleeping with one? Especially since she'd already seen Arizona in as little as a tank top and panties before. So, was it really that big of a deal?

Without verballing assenting, Callie moved forward, sat on the bed next to Arizona and went about her task. First, she slid Arizona's shoes off ―jeez, she had tiny feet― and then her hands began to unbutton the smaller woman's jeans. There was no reason for her fingers to be trembling at all, she thought furiously as her digits fumbled with the belt buckle. She had undressed women before; drunken college and med school friends and roommates, her older sister during high school. She was not a stranger to undressing another woman, so why the hell did she feel so on edge?

Arizona watched, through a half-lidded gaze, her intern go about taking off her pants. She hadn't actually thought she would do it; she figured Callie would laugh at her and leave, but she should have known the brunette would do something unexpected. She refused to think about this woman's warm hands on her hips and thighs because that would surely send her spiraling.

A grunt escaped Callie as she began trying to pull Arizona's pants down her hips. It seemed they were caught. A frown pulled at the corners of plush, dark pink lips and Arizona wouldn't have been able to stop her laughter if she had tried.

The intern glanced up at her face for the first time since she'd begun undressing Arizona. It was already strange enough without making it weirder with eye contact, but now the blonde was laughing at her and she didn't really know what to do. "I'm sorry, you just‒ it's―"

"I have a big ass, Callie," Arizona chortled at the wide eyed glare she received. "You can say it. I mean, in comparison to the rest of me, my ass is kinda big." She accompanied her words with a wiggle of her hips to help the waist of her pants over the swell of her behind.

"Right," Callie breathed because her hand had just brushed against the side of Arizona's ass and it was causing her stomach to twist in the oddest way so she couldn't focus much on forming a real sentence. Luckily, after the initial hurtle ‒so to speak‒ the jeans slid down the rest of her ivory legs easily enough.

And now it was on to the top.

Oh, _god._

She was going to touch Arizona's boobs. She just knew it. She wasn't typically a clumsy person, she was surgeon for goodness sake, but there was something about being this close to her boss on this particular night in this particular situation that was messing with her higher brain function, which was in turn fucking with her usually incredible fine motor skills. So she was aware enough to know that they wouldn't be ending the night without a bit of breast to hand contact.

And honestly, what the fuck was she supposed do with that?

But more importantly, she rolled her eyes, why was she making such a big deal out of it? Arizona clearly wasn't bothered if her droopy eyes and sleepy grin that totally made her look like an adorably drowsy child and Callie kind of couldn't stop staring…

"Calliope," the prone woman called out softly, reaching a hand out for her to take.

And you know, of course Callie took it because well. What else was she going to do? Go back to her apartment. That was what else she _should_ have been doing, but wasn't doing because she had fake girlfriend duties to attend to.

Obviously.

Arizona tugged on her hand and patted the spot next to her, indicating that she wanted Callie to lie next to her, which wasn't a problem. Except it meant that Callie would have to climb over her and she wasn't sure that was a good idea given her slightly diminished capacity. But Arizona was insistent so she bit the bullet and hauled her ass over the smaller form before lying down on her back.

"You have tiny hands." God, Callie, _what_? She hadn't even thought that before it came flying out of her face.

The blue eyed woman just giggled. "I know. Yours aren't tiny though."

She snorted. No, no one had ever described any part of her as tiny, especially her hands. "You're not wrong."

"Mmm," Arizona hummed, her eyelids slowly falling close and Callie thought she might be falling asleep, but she spoke again. "You're different than I thought you'd be."

Well. That was. Okay. "You think about me?"

She expected Arizona to have more of a reaction to her question, but the peds surgeon just bit her lip over a laugh and shifted to her side so she could look at Callie. Except her eyes were still mostly closed so there was that. "Sometimes, yeah. Is that weird?"

Not at all. In fact, it was so not weird that Callie was relieved because she thought about the blonde, too. Not like, a ridiculous amount or anything, but she thought about her sometimes. "No, it's not weird."

"Good," she sighed.

It was Callie's turn to bite her lip because what had Arizona meant she was different? "Different how?"

Now Arizona did open her eyes as much as she could in her state of exhaustion and the Latina was struck at how much deeper they looked, a few shades darker than the usual cerulean she was accustomed to seeing. "Well, I thought you would sleep with Mark."

"You told me not to," Callie pointed out.

"I didn't think you'd listen," she confessed, sighing again. "Or I thought he'd talk you into ignoring what I said."

"He tried."

She smirked. "I know. I've seen the way he looks at you."

"He looks at a lot of women like that," the caramel skinned woman offered. "Including you sometimes. He stares at your boobs a lot."

"He says they're good boobs," Arizona quoted, breathing out a laugh. She couldn't count the number of times she caught Mark staring at her chest. He always said that just because they were lesbian boobs didn't mean he was discouraged from looking.

"They are," Callie agreed, freezing when she registered what she said. "I mean‒ just that‒"

"I know I have nice breasts, Calliope. It's okay," she reassured her, squeezing the hand she was still holding.

Callie kept quiet because she was afraid of what might happen if she tried to speak again, which resulted in a full minute of tranquil silence. Arizona's eyes had drifted close once again, but Callie knew she hadn't allowed herself to fall asleep because a pale thumb was rubbing across the back of Callie's hand.

"You can go if you want," Arizona said so softly Callie had to strain to decipher what she said.

"What about your shirt?"

Arizona's free hand slid down her side, over her slim hips, and behind her back to slip under her shirt and undo the clasp of her bra. "All done," she sang.

"You actually have to do some maneuvering, you know," Callie whispered.

A tongue peeked out to wet her lips as she nodded. "I know." Which she did. She knew that, but she couldn't find it in herself to move.

The brunette watched her in quietness for a long moment, examining the movement of her body as she breathed and the now familiar look of peace on her face. "You're gonna fall asleep."

Arizona hummed because uh, duh.

"I'll stay until you do," she promised.

* * *

Callie didn't remember falling asleep. All she remembered was watching Arizona sleep, which admittedly was a pretty bizarre thing to do, but the blonde was entrancing when she was asleep. Differently so than when she was awake. And apparently she too had slipped into the land of unconsciousness. Now her legs and arms were entangled with Arizona's and they had Pooh Bear squished between them, which _where had he even come from_? Also, it was like, a hundred degrees, which was what Callie got for falling asleep in all of her clothes so she automatically kicked off her shoes because _that_ would cool her off.

Huffing, she leaned over to see that it was one in the morning so there was no point in going back to her own apartment, so as slowly as she could, she slid the arm that was resting on Arizona's waist toward her and attempted to smoothly scoot over on the bed to she could remove her clothes because it was positively sweltering in Arizona's bedroom. But her extremely subtle movement still caused the blonde to stir and open her eyes, and then abruptly close them because the lights in her room were still on.

She flung an arm over her eyes and frowned. "It's bright."

"Yeah, I, uh, I fell asleep. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry for falling asleep, it's fine," she murmured, her voice impossibly soft. "Are you leaving?"

"No, I was just going to take off my pants because it's a billion degrees in here," Callie explained and then squinted in consideration because maybe Arizona wanted her to leave and that was why she was asking, in which case, wow. Okay. That was fine, too.

Arizona just laughed and started wiggling around. "Yeah, sorry about that. I get cold when I sleep. You can put your clothes in my reading chair." She was referencing the old, high-backed, pale pink chair that was situated between the wall and the nightstand that was on Callie's side of the bed. It was angled toward the window.

"Thanks." Callie quickly took off her socks and pants and _god_ , it was still hot, but this wasn't her apartment and she couldn't just casually ask Arizona to mess with her thermometer on Callie's behalf. How was Arizona even able to stand it? She was wearing a long-sleeved, for Pete's sake.

And dear god, she was getting under the covers. This was honestly unbelievable to Callie. And she was born and raised in Miami.

"Do you have bad blood circulation?" She felt the need to ask.

"Not particularly. You can open the window if you're―" she was cut off by her mouth splitting open in a yawn and she of course had to cover her mouth because manners. "―too hot."

The intern hesitated. "Are you sure? You're not gonna freeze to death, are you?"

Arizona giggled, finally managing to get her bra off from under her shirt. She put it on her nightstand. "I'll be fine, Callie."

"Okay." And that was really all she need before she walked over to the window closest to her, unlocked it and eased it halfway open.

Thank fuck.

She quickly rounded the bed and went to turn off the lights, and then tripped over one of Arizona's shoes before climbing back into bed and sliding under the covers, wanting to believe that the open window would be enough. Even under Arizona's thick as hell comforter.

Pooh Bear was probably melting.

"Can I ask you a question?"

Arizona hummed quietly. Her eyes were closed once again, but she nodded once.

"You woke up so easily even though I barely moved." Okay, that wasn't a question, but she was trying to figure out a way to phrase her actual inquiry.

"That's not a question," she pointed out helpfully.

"I know." The younger woman thought for a moment, getting her thoughts together before she spoke again. "Your sensitivity to touch… has‒are y-you‒is it pathological?"

Arizona was silent for a few seconds. "That's…" she trailed off and although her face was cloaked in darkness, Callie could see the way she frowned thoughtfully. "Yes, it is."

"If I asked what happened, would you tell me?" She asked carefully, watching her face for any sign of discomfort or annoyance.

"I―" the blue eyed woman sighed. "My birth was… difficult. It resulted in some oxygen deprivation that effected some sensory parts of my brain. It made me really sensitive."

"Oh." Callie never would have guessed that. She could hardly picture something like that happening to Arizona; she always seemed so… above it all or something. And Callie knew that was ridiculous because Arizona was just as human as she was, but the Attending seemed almost god-like. All of the Attendings did, so it was weird to think that they were all just the same. They were all just people.

"This doesn't mean I'm fragile, Callie," she was quick to say. "I'm still the same me that I was before I told you."

And Callie heard her, she did, but she was thinking. "Derek and Mark are really protective of you," she stated. "Whenever you're walking with one of them, they're always scanning the room or the halls and they're always kind of hovering a little bit. I never thought― but I mean, it makes more sense now. They're always anticipating to make sure nothing happens to you, aren't they?"

A groan of frustration left Arizona's mouth as she glared up at Callie. "It's not‒ I don't‒ I'm-I'm not… I'm not fragile," she repeated firmly. "They just worry. A lot."

The brunette nodded slowly because she understood. Kind of. "Does anyone else know?"

"No. I don't usually tell people that," she admitted.

The confession made Callie's chest feel light and warm and she let the feeling guide her closer to her bed companion. "But you told me." They were so close now that they had no choice but to entwine their legs together and Callie could feel the rise and fall of Arizona's stomach as she breathed.

"You asked," the smaller woman offered. "No one's ever asked before."

"Well, I won't tell anyone," Callie said lamely, cringing at her own choice of words. "Obviously. It, um, thank you for telling me."

Arizona ducked her head, somehow managing to snuggle even further into her pillow, but the darker skinned woman could see her smile even as her eyes slid shut. "Goodnight, Calliope."

Callie snorted, nudging the blond with her foot. "Goodnight, Arizona."

* * *

_She digs the words out of the sky.  
She leaves them there for you to find._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Way to the Future by Katie Herzig
> 
> ~esthropp


	6. Believe What You're Saying

_What bugs me is you believe what you're saying.  
What bothers me is you don't know how you feel._

* * *

"Should we kiss?"

The question was whispered just to the left of her head, and she felt her entire body go taut with tension, her fingers curling around and digging into the cart she was standing in front of in an effort not to jump out of her skin. Her breathing stuttered in her chest and she had to physically remind herself to _breathe, goddamn it_ because she knew she was in no immediate danger, but Jesus fucking Christ, Callie had come out of nowhere.

After she regained mobility and the ability to breathe without possibly choking on air, she actually registered what Callie had said and almost choked _again_. "Wh-what? Why?"

She couldn't see her, but she felt the barely perceptible movement of a shrug against her back. "Because girlfriends kiss and we haven't, and if we're going to make this thing believable, we should kiss, right?"

Well, when she put it like that.

"Ye-yeah, I guess," but she was shaking her head even as she voiced her agreement. "But Callie, I don't know if you're gonna like the kind of kissing we'd be doing to make this relationship more believable. Especially to Nicole."

"What do you mean?"

Arizona finally turned around from the computer she was looking at to face the intern, who was standing unusually close. "What are you doing on my floor?" She asked instead of answering.

"You have a consult with Shepherd," she supplied. "But what did you mean? What kind of kissing are you talking about?"

"Our consult isn't for another hour," Arizona pointed out, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

Callie chuckled, nodding. "Yeah, it isn't, but he had something to take care of so he sent me up here early to see if you needed anything since you have no interns on your service."

The peds surgeon just hummed, pursing her lips in thought as she turned back to what she was looking at on the monitor. "There are some charts―"

"What did you mean?" Callie interrupted her easily. "About the kissing thing? What did you mean?"

The blonde sighed because honestly, she just shouldn't have said anything, but she knew Callie wouldn't let it go until she explained herself. "Come with me." She took Callie by the hand and led her a few doors down the hall into an on call room, shutting and locking the door behind them. "What I meant was…" Did she really wanna do this?

"Arizona?" The taller woman watched her boss bite down on her lower lip as she seemingly came to a decision about something.

"What I meant was," she sighed out because she really was about to do this. Stepping forward so that her front was flush with Callie's, she brought her hands up to wrap around the back of Callie's neck and let her fingers play with the silky, soft hairs at the nape.

"Uh," the brunette felt her breath catch in the back of her throat at the feather-light touch. What was Arizona doing?

"The kind of kissing," Arizona continued as though she hadn't heard anything, pressing herself even tighter against Callie. "… we'd have to do involves," she used her right hand to grab Callie's left hand and place it on her waist before dragging her own hand back up behind Callie's neck. "… your hands on me like this," she then used her close to trembling left hand to grab Callie's right hand and ever so slowly (because she was fucking nervous) brought it down to rest on the top curve of her ass. "… or like this." She finally looked up at the taller woman only to find, to her great relief, that she had her eyes closed because their faces were just _so close_. "And I'm not sure if you're… comfortable with that. With this."

"Mmm," was all Callie could manage.

"Calliope," Arizona murmured softly, trying for the other woman's attention by firmly tugging on silky locks at the base of Callie's skull.

Dark tan eyelids flicked open, revealing the hazy confusion and tentative trust swirling in rich, chestnut irises. She was out of her depth right now. Well, not completely. She was familiar with the situation of begin wrapped up in someone like she was, but never with another woman. Arizona was smaller than her, and softer than she was used to, and she smelled like cinnamon and vanilla and something else enticing, and though they'd literally slept together on more than one occasion and she knew what Arizona felt like, what they were doing now was different.

But she could try to roll with it. Probably.

She knew what it looked like when someone was going to kiss her. And she knew that was what was happening, but the kissing thing had been her idea. It was her who instigated it and she didn't want Arizona to feel like she had to make the first move just because she was a lesbian and Callie had no romantic interest in women. So even though Arizona seemed to have everything completely under control, Callie decided to take matters into her own hands. Literally and figuratively, of course.

Quickly and carefully, she leaned down and placed a small, closed-mouth kiss on Arizona's bottom lip, surprising the other woman with her initiative. "That was just a warm up," Callie assured her because that had been the most asexual kiss known to man, she was sure.

The blonde only giggled, nodding her head. She would wait until Callie was ready, wanting the younger woman to be as at ease as possible under the circumstances.

"Um, hmm…" the intern stutter-hummed as she readied herself for what she was about to do. In an effort to stall, she took stock of where her hands were and chose to ignore the way Arizona's generous chest squished against hers every single time either one of them took a breath. "Are you‒ does this feel okay?"

Arizona wanted to laugh. Did it feel okay to have an incredibly beautiful woman have her large, elegant, warm hands on her body? Did it feel _okay_? She just nodded once more. "It feels fine. Feel free to…" _touch me more_? Yeah, she was not saying that shit.

"Okay," Callie mumbled, lost to her own thoughts. Her right wrist was a little stiff so she flexed it and the corresponding metacarpals to loosen it up and accidentally but very lightly squeezed Arizona's behind.

"Oh," the peds surgeon breathed in surprise, her blue eyes wide.

"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to―"

"I put your hand on my ass, Callie," she remarked, wryly to cut off the apology. "It's not like I wasn't expecting something to happen back there."

"Oh, right." Duh, Callie.

Arizona tilted her head thoughtfully as she peered up at the obviously nervous woman. "Calliope, you know, we don't have to―"

But this had been Callie's idea, meaning they absolutely had to do it because she was _not_ chickening out. It was just kissing.

So without warning and entirely abruptly, as was her usual, the taller of the two swooped down and pressed their lips together in a delicate kiss. Caught off guard, Arizona's mouth dropped open in a gasp, allowing Callie the opportunity to take that full bottom lip in between hers. Gently caressing the soft flesh with her lips, the brunette was floored over how freaking soft Arizona's mouth was. It was like kissing a very responsive marshmallow. And with that thought in mind, she began to nibble just so on Arizona's lip and it earned her fluttery moan from high in the blonde's throat.

She could feel the way ivory digits tightened their grip on her hair and Callie was shocked to realize that the smaller woman was enjoying this. A light, airy feeling curled its way from her abdomen, though her chest, to the very top of her head and floated down her spine to settle at the base. The presence of this feeling, whatever it was, made her want to deepen the kiss, and she swiped her tongue along the inside of Arizona's lip. But she didn't need to. The light haired woman eagerly granter her entrance and Callie's tongue tentatively dipped inside, teasingly flicking against Arizona's.

The moan she received in return for her efforts caused her knees to soften up and she held Arizona tighter to her, idly wondering what would happen if her knees gave out. That thought left her mind almost as soon as it entered, her attention being stolen by the shudder-inducing sensations Arizona's fingers were causing as they pulled and tugged at her roots. Callie _adored_ having her hair pulled and she couldn't help the whimper that left her as she pulled away from the kiss.

They were both panting and since Callie had only pulled back enough to rest her forehead against Arizona's, she could feel the woman's sweet, warm breath against her cheek. "Have you been eating candy?" She blurted because what the fuck was she supposed to say?

"A little. Why? Do I taste like it?" And okay, her asking Callie what she tasted like blew her mind a little bit.

"Yeah, like jolly ranchers. The cherry one." Stop being so specific.

"Got it in one, Dr. Torres," Arizona chuckled, tenderly nudging her nose against Callie's in a gesture meant to soothe. "Are you okay? This wasn't too weird for you, was it?"

The Latina shook her head slowly, but honestly she didn't really know how she felt about it if she felt anything about it at all. The kiss was great, she could admit that, but beyond wanting to make sure Arizona liked it, she wasn't particularly moved by it. Her hands were though because one of them had bunched up the bottom of Arizona's scrub top and the other one was perfectly cupping the fair skinned woman's left ass cheek.

How even…?

"So this is going to get Nicole to back off?" She asked for lack of anything better to say.

Arizona nodded as she disengaged from Callie's hold, not moving away very far. "It should. I hope it does. We haven't really done a lot couple-y things around her, so this should help. We don't have to do anything over the top or anything."

"What if we need to do something over the top?" Callie inquired because Nicole was persistent in getting Arizona to go out with her? Have sex with her? Join her and Mark in bed? She really didn't know exactly what the woman wanted, but if the persistence kept up, maybe they'd have to resort to over the top. "What if we have to get a little gayer than kissing?"

Oh, my god, Callie was really trying to test her. Arizona was trying not unleash all of her gay all over this arrangement, but Callie was making it so fucking difficult with all of her _helpful suggestions_. And just how gay was she willing to go? Why had Arizona ever thought it was a good idea to agree to this?

"Well, we'll cross that bridge if we come to it," she chose to settle on.

"Okay," the ortho surgeon in training agreed, smiling slightly. "I guess we should get back to work."

"Yes!" She bounced up on her toes, suddenly remembering. "I have charts for you to do until our consult."

Callie rolled her eyes, absentmindedly pondering the likelihood of kissing Arizona to get out of charting.

* * *

"George and Izzie know."

Callie jerked her head up in surprise. She was sitting on a bench outside, finishing up some charts for Shepherd after their joint surgery with Arizona and she hadn't expected any company. She didn't think anyone even knew about this bench; it was conveniently nestled behind a wall of shrubbery. "Know… about you and Shepherd?"

"Yep," Meredith confirmed, dropping down to sit beside her.

"Are they mad?"

"It seems like it."

"Huh. What are they mad about?" She wondered.

"What do you mean?"

"Are they mad you didn't tell them or are they mad that you're sleeping with him?" She clarified as she scribbled something down.

"Both, I think."

"Well, they can be mad, but what and who you do on your own time out of the hospital is none of their business," Callie told her, pausing to read over something before she continued. "And if they think you're only sleeping with him for surgeries, then they clearly don't think very much of you. If they try to give you shit for not telling them, then just explain that you weren't comfortable telling people that you're dating your boss, especially considering how they're reacting now."

"Wow," the blonde muttered, impressed. "It sounds like you've given this a lot of thought."

Callie paused, thinking of when she had walked in on Cristina and Burke last week. "Not really, but I figured something like this would happen. Arizona said she was surprised you two lasted this long without the whole hospital finding out."

Meredith fixed her with an assessing stare. "What's going on there?"

"What's going on where?" Cristina questioned as she approached the pair.

"Callie and Robbins," Grey supplied.

Cristina laughed as she sat down next to Meredith. "Callie and Robbins. Calliope Robbins."

Callie felt air get trapped in her throat as she tried to speak. "Do _not_ call me Calliope."

"Robbins does it," she pointed out.

"Well, Arizona's my boss and she doesn't say it to piss me off," the brunette snapped, staring down at the chart in her hand in an attempt to ignore them.

"What's going on with you two?" Meredith inquired again.

"Nothing is going on," she scoffed because it would be a cold day in hell before she told them about being Arizona's fake girlfriend. "We're friends. Good friends."

"Good friends who sleep together," Cristina chimed in.

Yeah, she knew Cristina had to know about that. "Oh, don't even go there unless you wanna talk about who _you've_ been sleeping with," she said pointedly, arching an eyebrow.

Cristina frowned and folded her arms across her chest, but didn't say anything.

"Wait, you've been sleeping with someone?" Meredith nearly shrieked. "You've been sleeping with someone and you didn't tell me?"

"I didn't tell anyone. She found out because we live together, and I'm not ready to talk about it," the stoic woman replied, matter-of-fact.

"But I told you about Derek," Grey countered.

"That's different. I'm not you," Cristina stated. "And like I said, I don't wanna talk about it. If I ever do, you'll be the first to know."

Meredith huffed, but accepted it. "Fine, but don't think I'm not gonna try to figure it out."

"I wouldn't expect any less from you," Cristina smiled sarcastically. "Now back to Callie and Robbins."

"No, not back to Callie and Robbins. There's nothing to talk about," Callie insisted, sighing. They really didn't need to know what was going on between her and their Attending because then they would just jump to conclusions and then the whole hospital would know and she didn't want that for Arizona or for herself. So just, no.

"But you're sleeping together," Meredith said as if that meant she needed to know about it.

"Sometimes, yes," Callie had no problem admitting that. "But all we do is sleep. Literally. Sometimes we talk, but it's not like we're doing anything sexy. As I mentioned, we are just good friends. Who are affectionate with each other," she tacked on.

Cristina snorted. "You're not affectionate. Especially not in the morning."

"Not with you," she shot back, closing the stack of charts in her lap. "My friendship with her is different than my friendship with either of you."

"Whatever you say, Cal," Meredith shrugged.

And Callie had to laugh because they really were reaching. "Look, if Arizona and I really were a couple, why would I hide it? Not only is she insanely beautiful, but she's also a world renowned double board certified surgeon who saves the lives of sick children for a living. If we were together, I wouldn't deny being with her. Would you?"

The pair seemed to consider her words, exchanging a short glance before Cristina spoke. "Fair enough."

Callie rolled her eyes and bit her tongue to keep from pointing out that both women were in that exact situation: dating incredible surgeons in their respective fields, but neither of them were eager to tell anyone. Her friends were so messy.

"Torres."

Oh, god.

All three interns glanced to their right to see their head of plastic surgery approaching them.

"Dr. Sloan," Callie greeted back warily.

He smiled charmingly. "Arizona wanted me to ask you if you were coming over to our place for dinner tonight."

"Did she?" Like hell Arizona would send Mark to ask her _that_ of all questions.

"Okay," he chuckled. "She told me if I ran into you to tell you that she wants to talk to you, but I know she just wants to know if you're coming over so I thought I'd pass along the message."

"Uh-huh," she arched an eyebrow in suspicion. "Yeah, I'll be there. Is Arizona cooking?"

Mark let out a hard laugh. "No, Arizona doesn't cook."

"Arizona can't cook?" She could have sworn Arizona had mentioned something about cooking a few days ago.

"Oh, no. She can cook; she just doesn't," He informed her. "She'll cook maybe four times out of the year. If I'm lucky."

"Why doesn't she cook?" Meredith queried, sounding as amused as Callie felt. "If she can, why doesn't she?"

Mark just shrugged. "Arizona can do a lot of things, but that doesn't mean she's inclined to do them." He looked like he was about to say more, but the future ortho surgeon spoke before he could.

"So, what? You do all the cooking?"

He nodded. "Or we order takeout."

"Are you cooking tonight?"

"No, actually. Nicole wants to cook." He smirked at the way her face screwed up.

"Well, make sure she doesn't poison me," Callie joked even though she wasn't really joking.

"Sure thing, Torres," he chuckled as he began to walk away. "See you tonight."

* * *

_Showtime._

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I know I'm late, but I got stuck in the Pit and then friggin _Karev_ ," Callie growled out the words as she rushed into Arizona and Mark's apartment after having been let inside. Trying to make it seem as natural as possible, she leaned in and dropped a brief kiss on Arizona's mouth as she rid herself of her jacket. "I know he's your guy, honey, but he's a real jackass."

Arizona, who had been anxiously awaiting Callie's arrival, visibly relaxed when she opened the door, only to tense in surprise at the unexpected kiss she received. Shaking it off with a gentle laugh, she took the other woman's coat and draped it onto the coat rack. "Yeah, I know he is. And you're not that late. We're still eating." She led Callie over to the medium sized wooden dining table, where Mark and Nicole were seated together across from Arizona. "Sit. I'll get you a plate."

Callie shook her head as she stepped back. "No, you're already eating. I'll get my own plate." She didn't wait for Arizona to protest before she walked over to the kitchen and saw the spread that Nicole had prepared. "This looks really good." She wasn't overly fond of cilantro in her rice, but she'd get over it.

"Thanks," Nicole said. "Arizona helped."

The blonde clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth to cover her snort of derision. "I grated some cheese because Mark was in the bathroom."

"That's helping," Nicole all but sang.

The Latina shot a glare toward the back of Nicole's head as she prepared her plate. Honestly, that woman was just begging to get her ass handed to her. "Whatever." She barely stopped herself from sound petulant. Barely.

"What happened with Alex?" Arizona was curious. She knew Alex tended to rub pretty much everyone the wrong way, but she wasn't aware of any existing animosity between her star pupil and her… Callie.

Callie scoffed just thinking about it. "He's just so incredibly and unnecessarily smug all the time even when there's nothing to be smug about," she ranted, making her way back over to the table. She sat next to Arizona and frowned heavily. "He's just obnoxious and an ass and it irks me."

Arizona examined her momentarily, trying to think of anything Alex could have done to get the brunette that riled up. It only took her a few seconds. "Oh."

Her soft declaration caused Callie to look up at her. "Oh? What "oh"?" She could tell that Arizona had come to a realization of some sort and she was aware that her dislike of Alex went a little beyond being a disgruntled co-worker, but there was no way. Arizona could not have figured _that_ out in only a couple of seconds. Could she?

"Nothing," the peds surgeon smirked a little, turning her head to look down at the plate in front of her. She was not getting into that now.

The intern was tempted to call bullshit, but then she remembered that they weren't alone and there was a woman with a voracious appetite for her fake girlfriend just waiting for Callie's removal from the situation. So she simply nodded and decided not to pursue that topic. "You left your blue donut socks at my place," she said instead. She stumbled across them that morning –literally stumbled over them as she was getting ready and she snickered quietly, sitting them on top of her nightstand.

"That's where they are?" Arizona had been searching for them that morning. She'd had to settle for wearing her white donut socks since she couldn't locate them. "I looked everywhere for them."

Callie's grin was sly as she swallowed a bite of food. "You wore the white ones instead, didn't you?"

Struck with feeling utterly charmed at the triumphant expression on her fake girlfriend's face and pleasantly surprised by her accurate guess, Arizona gaped for just a moment. "How…?"

"Because I know you." She didn't really. She knew parts of her, but she didn't know her yet. But if they were gonna sell this, a little more lying couldn't hurt.

Pink lips pressed together in an effort to stifle the smile that wanted to settle on her face and she shook her head, letting out a medium pitched hum.

"How long have you two been together?" The question came from Nicole and served to pull them back to the table, so to speak.

"A little over six months," Arizona lied smoothly.

"And you're not living together?" Nicole was shocked. She had moved in with her last girlfriend after only three months and even that had felt like they'd waited for ages before shacking up.

"No," Callie said slowly, not understanding what the big deal was.

The redhead desperately wanted to ask why, but she refrained, raising her eyebrows and poorly smothering a smirk. "Oh. Okay."

"We're just cautious," Arizona murmured lightly, taking a sip of her water. "Just because we didn't U-Haul after the fourth date doesn't mean there's something wrong with us." Not that it was any of her business.

"Okay," Nicole repeated still smirking. "How did you meet?"

"I told you they met at work," Mark finally chipped in. He was enjoying watching the three women go back and forth; it was better than television.

"Yeah, but I wanna know the story," she expounded.

Arizona and Callie shared a loaded stare and the blonde nodded to her friend, indicating that Callie could take this one. "Well, we did meet at work. It was my first day at the hospital and I was in the gallery with a bunch of other people watching Arizona work on this kid who had a tree branch in his abdomen. She was… amazing, magnificent even and I so badly wanted to know her." That was all true. Arizona had been a goddess in the OR that day. "But she's the head of a department and I'm just a lowly intern so I didn't think she'd ever be interested." She made sure to cast a smiling glance over at Arizona as she spoke and she was intrigued to see the blonde already smiling at her. "Imagine my surprise when she came to personally congratulate me on my first successful surgery. I was instantly smitten and I knew I had to get her to go out with me." A flush of heat was spreading across her cheeks because what the fuck? She sounded so damn gay, which was the point, but still. It was _weird_. "So when I realized that we were living right across the hall from each other, it wasn't too long before I had her in my bed."

"Hey!" Arizona exclaimed, giggling at the bits of innuendo laced into truth. She wasn't going to think about how Callie's twisted, gay version of what was mostly the truth made her insides warm.

"It's the truth," Callie chuckled, capturing one of Arizona's hands in hers because that seemed like something a couple who was in love would do. At six months, they'd be in love, right? Or at least close to it.

"And Arizona?" Nicole prompted. "What drew you to Callie?"

Arizona grinned over at Callie and taking only a second to think about what she was about to do, she leaned in and took Callie's plump bottom lip between hers in a soft, warm kiss. "Her smile," she answered when they pulled apart. "And her lips." Calliope had some nice lips. "And she was endearingly awkward around me for the first few weeks that we knew each other. I didn't know she wanted me though. I thought it was just professional hero-worship." Wanting to play it up, she smoothed a thumb down Callie's adorable baby hairs. "That was until she had me against her door with her hand under my skirt."

Whatever Mark had been about to swallow got caught in his throat and he choked loudly.

Arizona smirked. _Good._

Whatever initial surprise had gripped Callie at hearing those words come out of Arizona's mouth quickly dissipated as hilarity took over for the exact same reason. She knew Arizona could be suggestive, but the blonde was so cute and angelic-looking that it gave her a perverse sense of pleasure to hear her speak like she had just done.

"That was mean," Mark groused out, dislodging what was stuck in his throat. He glared at his best friend, who only blinked innocently at him.

"Nicole wanted to hear the story," she replied, grinning wickedly.

The conversation turned to much less incendiary subjects after that and when they finished their meal, the two couples decided to put on a movie. Arizona gathered the plates and rinsed them off before putting them in the dishwasher. Meanwhile, Mark went and got two throw blankets and Nicole and Callie awkwardly lingered in the living room. Not wanting to have to engage any further with the redhead, Callie went to the kitchen to help Arizona with the dishes.

"There's not much else to do," the smaller woman told her, putting the last plate into the dishwasher, closing it, and turning it on.

"That's fine." As long as she could avoid being alone with Nicole. She snaked her arms around Arizona waist and pulled her closer so that they could whisper. "So I had my hand up your skirt?" Callie husked into her ear, having only a vague idea of what it would do to the other woman.

Sincerely happy that Callie couldn't see the way her eyes almost rolled back, Arizona took a deep, uneven breath because goddamn Calliope and her goddamn voice. "Well," she let her own voice deepen, just a little, so it took on a smoky affect. "You had to get me in your bed somehow, hmm? And what better way to do that than with your fingers inside me?"

A weak, shuddery, breathy laugh tripped out of the brunette's mouth as something in her abdomen inexplicably tightened in response to Arizona's words. The shorter woman was way better at this than her. "And it couldn't have been my _endearing awkwardness_ or my smile?"

The chuckle that Arizona released was sonorous, rich, and commanding. "Oh Calliope, I have no doubt that your gorgeous mouth was involved."

Well, fuck.

"You two lovebirds gonna join us or not?" Callie would deny thinking this, but thank god for Mark.

Appearing sly as all fuck, Arizona extricated herself from Callie and all but strutted into the living room, taking one of the throw blankets from Mark and plopping down on the sofa. "Coming, Calliope?"

For what felt like the hundredth time that night the intern bit down on her tongue to stop the, most likely inappropriate, comment she wanted to make. "At some point tonight." But apparently she didn't bite hard enough. She moved over to the sofa Arizona was sitting on and nudged her forward so she take the spot behind her. Once she was comfortable sitting slightly diagonal with a pillow against her back, she spread her legs wide, silently indicating that Arizona should sit back against her.

Callie was playing with fire, the senior surgeon noted as she sat back down, scooting so that her hips rested snuggly in between Callie's thighs and so that her back rested easily against Callie's front. As soon as she was settled, long, dusky skinned arms wound around her waist.

"Comfortable?" Mark remarked in a drawl, sounding nothing short of annoyed that they had taken up more than half the sofa.

"There's always the recliner," Arizona offered cheekily. "Or the floor."

"You know what, Robbins―"

"Mark, the recliner is fine," Nicole interrupted him, chuckling.

"So what are we watching?" Callie wanted to know as the other couple got settled and turned on the DVD player.

" _Lara Croft: Tomb Raider_ ," Mark announced delightedly.

"I take it that's yours," Callie lightly pinched her friend's side to let her know she was talking to her.

"Maybe," Arizona giggling, tilting her head slightly back and to the side to press a kiss to a nicely defined jaw.

"Shh, it's starting," Mark hushed them.

Arizona flipped him off, but still turned to focus on the television screen. They were about a half an hour into the movie when Arizona noticed the rather subtle movements happening under Mark and Nicole's blanket. Unable to resist rolling her eyes, she felt the exasperated sigh she was about to heave get stuck in her chest. Calliope's long, gorgeous fingers were surreptitiously inching their way under her shirt, only stopping when she splayed her whole left hand on Arizona's taut midsection.

"Is this okay?" The dark haired woman was clearly nervous, but she didn't remove her hand.

"Um… yeah," she assured her very quietly, not sounding all that convincing herself. "It's fine, but you don't have to…"

"She's staring," Callie told her frankly, just as quiet. "Don't look, but she's watching us, or you. I figure if she's gonna stare, give her something to stare at, you know? But I can stop if you want me to."

Arizona didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or scream. "Callie," she actually managed to get the sigh out that time. How did she approach this? "I promise you, if you ever do something I don't like, I will tell you. You don't have to keep asking."

She felt nod behind her. "Okay, but same goes for you. I know you've been, I don't know, holding back or something so you don't freak me out, but I'm not gonna freak out, Arizona. Stop worrying about making me uncomfortable. If I'm ever uncomfortable, I'll let you know."

"Okay." Was that her giving Arizona free range to be as gay as she pleased because…

"I'm not fragile either," Callie continued. "Last week when you told me you weren't fragile, I believed you. I _believe_ you. You have to have believe me, too, okay?"

"Okay."

This was going to be a disaster.

* * *

_What scares me is that while you're telling these stories,  
You actually believe that they are real._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As Is by Ani DiFranco
> 
> ~esthropp


	7. Time Has A Way

_Was there when the rain tapped_  
_Its way down your face._  
_You were a miracle,_  
_I was just holding your space, mmm_.

* * *

Callie noticed something. Well, she noticed a lot of things, but there was one thing she noticed that kind of freaked her out. Arizona was completely silent when she slept. She didn't make a single sound, unless she was shifting around. But where most people made some type of breathing sound, whether it was a soft snuffle or an all-out snore, Arizona was just quiet. And it was fucking terrifying to Callie. She was not used to it and she had to keep reminding herself to watch the rise and fall of the senior surgeon's chest to calm down.

But it still freaked her the fuck out.

Arizona thought it was funny.

They didn't sleep together every single night, but at least two or three times a week, they would stay together at Callie's if Nicole was being particularly obnoxious or at Arizona's if they needed to make it a point to be all couple-y in front of the redhead. And that was another thing: being Arizona's fake girlfriend wasn't as weird as she initially thought it would be. Being straight, she never thought about dating a woman and really, she still wouldn't seriously consider doing it, but pretending to wasn't all that bad.

But splitting time between her intern friends and her Attending friends was getting a little difficult. Any time she turned down her fellow interns to hang out with Arizona, they made snide, mostly joking remarks, but she missed Arizona when she spent a lot of time hanging out with her intern friends. She was closest with Meredith and Cristina out of the interns, but Arizona was probably her best friend at that point. Plus, being an intern and working insane hours didn't leave a lot of time to socialize anyway, so a lot of her time spent with Arizona was spent sleeping or working. And going all the way to Meredith's house to hang out could be such a chore, so for the most part, she would go to Joe's for drinks with her intern friends and then head to her or Arizona's apartment to sleep. Currently though, she wasn't sure that was going to work.

When she walked into Joe's with George, she spotted Meredith and Izzie at the bar and the two of them began to make their way over. On the way there though, she saw Arizona, Mark, and Derek sitting at a table near the dart board, and her steps faltered, causing George to run into her back. Her apology was automatic, borderline absentminded as she watched her Attendings laugh amongst themselves. Should she go over and say a quick hello? She had seen two out of three of them earlier though and she knew if she went over there, she would be reluctant to leave their company. Maybe she'd have a drink with her friends and then go over.

"Callie?" George prodded her in the back, questioning.

"Yeah," she murmured before moving forward once again toward the bar. She sat down next to Meredith and ordered a beer.

"Today sucked," the dishwater blonde declared.

She chuckled. "Not for me, it didn't."

"That's because you're best friends with the only Attending that Bailey seems to like," Izzie pointed out. "And like is a strong word when it comes to Bailey."

"I wasn't even on Arizona's service today," Callie countered easily. "And my being friends with her doesn't make Bailey like me any more or less. I already asked."

"Of course you did," George smiled.

"It's important information to have," she reasoned playfully. "And Meredith, I thought you got in on one of Shepherd's surgeries." She received a knowing look in response. "Ah." They'd be talking about that later, it seemed. "Well, I helped Evans place a titanium rod into a guy's femur, and then I got to watch Sloan do a skin graft. So I had a great day."

"Save it, Torres," Grey groused.

Callie opened her mouth to reply, but paused when she felt a warm weight against her back. A funny mix of vanilla and mint wafted up into her nose and she knew instantly who it was. "Can I help you?"

She felt a puff of breathy laughter against her cheek. "Maybe later."

"Having fun?" She inquired, twisting around on her stool to face her slightly intoxicated friend.

"Yes," Arizona chirped brightly. Her and the guys hadn't gone out, just the three of them, in what felt like forever so she was having an awesome time. "I'm having a lot of fun kicking Derek's ass at darts. You should come play with me later."

The brunette took in twinkling, cornflower blue irises and the ever-present dimples, and allowed a bemused smirk to make its way onto her face. "That sounds promising," she flirted without thinking.

Arizona bit down on her bottom lip to keep her giggle from breaking free, but it didn't dampen the widening of her grin. She looked like she wanted so badly to continue with that line of banter, but decided to hold it in when she ducked her head bashfully for a second. "Did you have a good day?"

"I did," Callie said in low voice, watching the blonde through lowered lids. "I didn't see you though."

"I missed you, too," she said back, a muted tone of amusement in her voice.

"That was a bold leap." Callie was all but oblivious to the attention of her fellow interns at that point.

"No, not really," Arizona remarked confidently, happily. She reached behind Callie to grab her drink from Joe. "Come see me later," she requested, inclining her head in the direction of where Mark and Derek were seated as she began to back away.

"I will," Callie quickly promised. She didn't look back to her friends until after she watched Arizona take her seat next to Mark, and she found all three of them staring at her. "What? Do I have something on my face?"

"You're kidding, right?" Izzie deadpanned.

Callie just stared blankly. What was she talking about?

"You were flirting with her," Meredith supplied helpfully.

"Yeah…?" Callie wasn't sure what the big deal was. She and Arizona flirted all the time, but it didn't mean anything. That was just how they were with each other sometimes. "Alcohol makes her flirty and goofy when she's in a good mood. It's funny."

"You drink with her a lot?" George was curious.

"Well, I wouldn't say a lot. We have wine with dinner sometimes when we're not too tired to manage." Which was true, but more often than not, they both ate relatively quickly and fell into bed, or they ate while studying for surgeries and the intern exam (Callie) or writing, editing, and reviewing articles for medical publications (Arizona). "But I usually get in pretty late, even when she doesn't, and it's basically time for us to go bed."

"Us? So you two _are_ sleeping together," Izzie exclaimed in a knowing manner.

Honestly if Callie had rolled her eyes any harder, she probably would have gotten a headache. "Yes, we sleep together in the same way that Meredith and Cristina sometimes sleep together."

"Oh," the blonde visible deflated.

"Why does everyone care about what I do or don't do with Arizona?" Callie wanted to know, feeling truly mystified.

"Well, a lot of people at the hospital think you're dating," Meredith told her. "You two are very tactile and smiley when you're around each other."

"And your personal space is practically nonexistent," George added.

The brunette scoffed a laugh at that. If she and Arizona were a real couple, they'd be a pretty boring one in her opinion. And she actually knew that people at the hospital thought that they were dating because last week, one of Arizona's scrub nurses told her how lucky she was to have 'snagged' Dr. Robbins. Callie had been so stunned she hadn't been able to correct the woman.

"We're not dating," she declared simply, rather than launching into all of the reasons why she and Arizona wouldn't be a real couple. "And we're not having sex with each other either. We are best friends, if there needs to be a title. Now, can we please talk about something else?"

And so they did, Cristina showing up not long after with a story about the surgery she had just scrubbed out of. The five young doctors spent the next couple of hours sitting at the bar and enjoying each others' company, while periodically quizzing each other on medical terms, procedures, and conditions. Although the intern exam was far off, they all firmly believed that it was never too early to start studying. Callie wasn't too worried though; she had always tested well because she had an incredible talent for coming up with good ways to study.

None of them really noticed how late it was getting because when they got together, they just seemed to lose track of time talking about pretty much anything. It was only when Callie turned to check on Arizona (for the umpteenth time that night, but who was counting?) and saw the small blonde jumping up and down, clapping with glee, before throwing herself into Derek's arms that she knew it was time to leave. The neurosurgeon seemed to be expecting it because he caught her easily without batting an eyelash.

To be honest, Arizona could have either been very drunk or just extremely tipsy. Any amount of alcohol turned her enthusiasm levels up to a thousand percent. Still, it was past midnight and she had to be up fairly early in the morning, so she said her goodbyes to her fellow interns and paid for her drinks so she could go over to her Attending friends and find out if she would be sleeping alone that night.

"Torres, wait," Alex called to her as she was standing up. He had shown up about an hour ago and though he wasn't very well liked, he was still one of them so they made somewhat of an effort to include him in their conversations.

"What?" She couldn't keep herself from snapping.

He smirked into his drink. "Does Robbins wear a frilly little nightgown to bed?" Ah, that put a downright wolfish grin on Callie's face, but she just shook her head. "Then what does she wear?"

The brunette couldn't stop her sly chuckle as she pulled her bag up on her shoulder. "Nothing," she sang merrily, walking away. She technically wasn't lying. Arizona had told her that she usually didn't wear anything to bed when she slept alone. But Karev didn't need to know that.

"What are you smiling at?" Mark inquired when she came up to their table.

She flushed and fixed her gaze on Arizona. "Nothing. Just… said something I probably shouldn't have, but it felt right to say it at the time."

The ENT was about to reply when Arizona finally noticed who had joined their trio. "Calliope! Hi," she giggled, bouncing up to her and standing right up against the taller woman. "Did you come to play with me?"

The Latina cocked her head to the side, biting her tongue to keep from laughing at how cute and accidentally (or maybe not) provocative mildly-drunk Arizona was being. "That depends on your definition of the word play."

Minutely darkened cobalt eyes narrowed for about half a second, and then the excitable woman was bouncing once again, which briefly messed with Callie's concentration for some reason. "Are we going home to play?"

Letting her head fall back on her shoulders, Callie raised her eyes heavenward and silently asked her lord and savior for the strength to _rein it in._ Her body shook with the effort she was exerting trying not to laugh. She didn't understand why she was so entertained. Nothing was funny. But Arizona was just _so!_ She couldn't even explain it.

"What do you wanna play, Arizona?" She asked, genuinely curious about her fascination with playing.

The happy blonde shrugged her thin shoulders, giggling. "Something fun."

 _Descriptive_ , Callie thought wryly. "Like what?" She prompted, placing her hands on Arizona's waist.

"Whatever it is, you might wanna take it to your apartment, Torres," Mark interrupted them. "Nicole is on her way over."

He sure knew how to ruin her mood.

"That's okay. We can still play at your place," Arizona assured her, her brow furrowing in exaggerated sympathy. "Even though I have more games than you do."

"Thanks, Arizona," she chuckled. "How much have you had to drink?"

"Three," the pediatric surgeon answered absently, focusing her attention on smoothing her fingers through the intern's thick, dark mane.

"Three…?" She left the question open ended, looking to the two men for more information.

"She started off with wine," Derek offered. "But she likes to switch up after every drink so that's all I know."

"The second one was a vodka tonic," Mark added in, sounding certain. "And the last one might have been whiskey, but she finished it too quickly for me to be sure."

Dark coffee-colored eyes glanced down at her smaller friend. "You are full of surprises, aren't you?"

Arizona beamed a huge smile up at her. "Yes."

Ten minutes later the pair of women and Mark had just crossed the street to go home. Callie was holding Arizona's hand because Mark had a large, protective hand resting on the small of the blonde's back, which Arizona kept trying to wiggle away from, so she thought there might be cause for concern leaving Arizona to her own devices in the state she was in. Then again, Mark was just generally overprotective of the small surgeon, but she wasn't taking any chances.

When they walked into the building, they spotted Nicole lingering near the elevators. "Hey, Nicole's here," Arizona blurted as though she was announcing a new discovery.

The snort Callie released was completely by accident. "Honey, hush. You're a little loud," she spoke calmly, her mouth against the skin of Arizona's temple.

"That's never been a problem for you before," Arizona retorted archly, pouting just the tiniest bit.

Oh, she couldn't be that drunk if she was able to keep up with their whole charade.

"Funny," the junior surgeon made a show of rolling her eyes.

"Hey, Arizona," Nicole smiled after greeting Mark with a kiss. "Callie."

"Hi, Nicole," Arizona said amiably as the four of them stepped onto the elevator. "Callie says hi, too," she added when her fake girlfriend didn't say anything.

"Yeah, hi," Callie mumbled as an afterthought. She really hadn't planned on saying anything to Mark's not-girlfriend and to prevent her from having to say much else, she pulled Arizona to her so that her back was flush against Callie's front. Nuzzling her face into the smooth ivory skin of her pretend lover's neck, she wound both of her arms around Arizona's mid-section.

With the alcohol coursing through her system, Arizona was helpless to her body's reaction to Callie and the situation in general. Low-pitched giggles poured out of her in an almost endless stream as the raven haired woman lightly nipped at her neck and gently smoothed a palm across her ribcage. Her level of intoxication was more than enough to loosen her tongue, but not enough that it dull her senses; in fact, it appeared that they might have been heightened, if the light tingling she felt in her abdomen was any indication.

"Calliope," she managed to groan out, slowly rocking back on her heels.

"Hmm?"

Feeling the question vibrate into her flesh sent an alarming shot of arousal straight down the center of her body. It made her eyes shoot open, despite being unable to recall shutting them, and she felt herself rapidly sobering up by the second. "Bed," she croaked over the sudden lump in her throat. That wasn't even what she meant to say, but rather than making a second attempt, she just pointed forward while the elevator doors were opening, permitting them access to their floor.

"Good idea," Callie rasped out with a thick chuckle. Untangling herself from behind her companion, she snatched up a smaller, lighter hand in hers and marched toward her apartment.

"Someone's impatient," Arizona commented evenly, watching Callie hurry to pull out her keys.

"Eager," she corrected immediately, unlocking and opening the door in a smooth, swift motion. Without even waiting to bid the other couple goodnight, she yanked Arizona into her apartment and slammed the door behind them. "Now, you mentioned something about bed?"

Rolling her eyes, Arizona walked further into the apartment, nudging her friend on the way to the kitchen. "I was distracted. Leave me alone."

"I distracted you?" Callie grinned, following her but stopping across the other side of the kitchen island.

"Yes, Calliope," she said dryly, taking a bottle of water out of the refrigerator. "In case you forgot, I'm gay and you are…" she ran her tongue across her top row of teeth to stall for time because she wasn't about to say something weird and make everything uncomfortable. "… not unattractive."

"Oh, wow," Callie remarked sardonically. "That's the best you can do, Arizona?"

"Of course not, but I don't wanna say something and then have both of us wish I hadn't said it," she explicated warily, wanting to tread lightly with that topic.

"Because you're afraid I'm gonna read into it more because you're gay?"

Callie Torres, a good guesser.

"Something like that, yeah." Exactly like that. "I really like being your friend, Callie and I don't want you to misinterpret anything because of this whole fake girlfriend thing."

"Arizona, you don't ever have to worry about that," the brunette declared.

"I don't?"

"Of course not. I know that even if you are attracted to me, it doesn't mean anything more than that. I know I don't have to worry about you getting a crush on me or something like that," she told her, absolutely certain of her words. She knew Arizona would never be anything more than her friend. She was _Arizona Robbins_ for god's sake, and Callie was just an intern. "And in the interest of full disclosure here, I'll confess that I actually really like kissing you."

"Well, yeah. I'm a fantastic kisser," the blonde retorted impishly before turning serious again. "But we understand each other, right? And we're― we're good?"

"Yeah, Arizona," Callie laughed quietly. "We're good. Now, can we go to bed?"

* * *

Arizona had just finished and scrubbed out of an eight hour long surgery that had saved the life of a ten year old when she was ambushed by Mark as she exited the scrub room. She knew exactly what he wanted to talk to her about and she knew the talk was long past overdue, but there wasn't much to say on her end.

"It's fine, Mark," she started to say before he could speak. "I'm fine about it and so is she. We came to an understand last night and everything is good, so I don't need a lecture."

"I'm hurt, Arizona," he feigned offense, placing a hand over his heart. "I don't lecture; that's Derek. I was just gonna make sure you know what you're doing."

"Of course I don't," she laughed. "I've never done this before, but like I said, we've talked. We've been talking and we'll keep talking for as long as this thing lasts. Speaking of which, you and Nicole―"

"Don't look into it," he cut her off, referencing the longevity of his situation with the redhead. "We're casual and we're just having fun."

"Okay," she shrugged, believing him.

"So I know you don't have time for an actual meal before your next surgery." The pair heard Callie before they saw her. During the course of their talk, they had made their way to an empty gurney that was sitting against the wall in the corner of the hallway. The intern was approaching them from the hallway adjacent to the way they were facing. "But I brought you some pasta salad from the cafeteria since I know you like it and it won't take too long to eat. Hey, Sloan."

"You take such good care of me," Arizona grinned cheekily, taking the container of food from Callie and scooting over so the taller woman could sit next to her.

"I do what I can," Callie replied, her voice coated with false modesty.

"You didn't bring me anything," Mark pointed out.

"I didn't know you were gonna be here," she excused herself. "But since you are here, how long do you think Nicole's gonna be around?"

"Why? You already sick of kissing Robbins already?" He smirked.

Both women glared at him, but Arizona spoke up. "He doesn't know."

"Why?" He asked again, looking to the Latina for an answer.

"Just curious," she lied. She honestly just didn't like Nicole. At all. She wanted her gone.

"What time do you get off?" Arizona wanted to know.

"Nine."

"Good. We can go home together," she smiled.

"What about me?" Mark was only a few notes shy of whining.

"You get off two hours before us," Arizona reminded him.

"Still," he insisted. "I don't like being the third wheel."

She scoffed so hard she almost choked on a piece of pasta. "You and Derek make me feel like a third wheel all the time. _On purpose._ "

"That's different," he reposted. "You're a baby."

"That's not a viable argument, Mark," she cried, having heard that excuse be used as a trump card in countless disagreements between her and the guys.

"You're just mad 'cause you're a baby," he taunted.

She let out a high-pitched noise of frustration and turned her body away from him. "You are so annoying."

"You two are adorable," Callie stated, having observed the childish back-and-forth in amusement.

"Don't," Arizona said sharply, stabbing at her food.

A warm rush of affection blossomed in Callie's chest at the other woman's pouty, indignant demeanor. The minor downturn of her mouth, the light flush on her cheeks and neck, the little crinkle in her nose, the stubborn set of her chin. She was just so impossibly cute, Callie thought, considering nothing else when she leaned over and pressed a gentle kiss on the tip of her nose.

"Adorable," she repeated, keeping her gaze attached to Arizona's.

The blonde, shocked by the spontaneous kiss, could only gape back, transfixed by the deep, unguarded nature of Callie's stare. She could clearly see the unfiltered warmth shining in her eyes, and she so wanted to sink into that warmth and let it blanket over her. But that would be stupid for a multitude of reason, so she blinked and looked down at her pasta. "Fine."

Callie smiled, feeling triumphant for no real reason.

xXx

"Ugh, I'm so ready to go home," Callie groaned, several hours later as she and Arizona walked toward the lobby of the hospital. "I feel like I could sleep for a month."

"You have to eat first," Arizona said, knowing the exhausted woman hadn't eaten in last seven hours.

"But Arizona," she wailed, leaning heavily on her friend as they walked. "I'm _so_ sleepy."

"You still have to eat first," the peds surgeon was unrelenting.

"But why?"

"You know why, Callie. You haven't eaten in a really long time."

"But I'm _so_ sleepy."

"Oh, are you?" Arizona asked airily. "I hadn't heard."

"Don't be mean to me," Callie whimpered.

"Oh, my god," Arizona muttered under her breath.

" _Arizona,_ " she moaned again just because.

"Calliope, I swear to god," she expressed through puffs of light laughter.

"Goodnight, Meredith," Callie said when they got closer to the other intern, who was waiting in the lobby, probably for Derek.

"Night," Meredith waved. "You two doing anything tonight?"

"Arizona's going straight to bed." It was the head of neurosurgery who responded as he approached the three woman.

"Wow, thanks, Dad," the aforementioned woman intoned sarcastically.

"You worked a lot today," he told her as if she wasn't aware.

"You're right, she did," Callie agreed, knowing it irritated Arizona when Derek or Mark were too protective of her. "And so did I, so we're absolutely going straight to bed."

"After you eat," Arizona supplemented.

The brown eyed woman shot her a severe look.

Nobody noticed the impending, tall redhead until it was too late and her stunning blue-green eyes were fixated on Derek.

"Addison," Derek and Arizona whispered in unison.

"What are you doing here?" He questioned, his tone giving away nothing.

"Well, you'd know if you bothered to return any of my phone calls," the mysterious redhead retorted, and then turned toward the woman he had his arm around. "Hi, I'm Addison, and you must be the woman screwing my ex-husband."

* * *

_Well, time has a way of_  
_Throwing it all in your face._  
_The past, she is haunted._  
_The future is laced._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big Black Car by Gregory Alan Isakov 
> 
> ~esthropp


	8. The Stupid Shit I Do

_I love everything you do._

* * *

"Ex-husband?" Meredith's voice was barely audible as she stared between Derek and Addison.

"Addison," Arizona didn't even put up false pretenses. She grabbed the taller woman by the upper arm and all but dragged her outside, a completely bewildered Callie trailing behind them. "What the hell was that?" She demanded to know when the three of them made it outside.

"What are you talking about? I was just saying hi," the redhead said, unprepared for heat she was receiving.

"You…" Arizona began to say, laughing humorlessly as she attempted to calm herself down. "That's not how you greet people, Addison. He hadn't told her he was married yet."

"What? I thought you said it was serious between them," Addison was officially confused.

"It is! But you don't just tell the woman you're getting serious with that your wife left you after discovering that she's a lesbian, Addison," the blonde exclaimed, waving her hands around wildly in frustration. Callie didn't hesitate in grabbing one of her flailing hands, the action soothing her for the moment. "He was getting around to telling her, but you know how hard it was for him to move on after you. If you screw this up for him, I'll have to hurt you."

"Okay, okay," the redhead raised her hands in a placating gesture. "I didn't know. I'll just go explain myself, I guess."

Arizona scoffed. "Don't. You've done enough already."

"Why are you so angry with me?" Addison questioned loudly. She had not anticipated her arrival being taken as badly as it was.

"She's just tired," Callie answered before Arizona could snap again.

"I'm perfectly capable of speaking for myself, Calliope, thank you." Or she just redirected the woman's ire toward herself.

But Callie, having dealt with her friend in various states of exhaustion just let the rudeness roll off her back, feeling just a tickle of amusement. "Yeah, you definitely need to sleep, hon," she murmured softly, trying not to smile as she lightly tugged on the smaller woman's hand. It probably wasn't the best time to find Arizona's tired crankiness endearing, but she couldn't help it.

"Do you have somewhere to stay?" The blonde asked, looking directly at Addison, who just nodded. "And you're probably gonna wanna go comfort Meredith?" She looked at Callie now.

"I got this," Cristina muttered as she and Meredith flew by the three of them, seemingly out of nowhere. The trio watched them disappear toward the familiar Emerald City Bar.

Callie groaned loudly. "I should go. I mean, she's my friend. She's my _good_ friend. So I should go, right?" She wasn't sure who she was asking, but she needed an excuse because she was just so sleepy. But Meredith, right? She should be with her in her time of crisis. But Cristina did say she had it.

"You should eat," Arizona said loftily.

The intern turned to her with the most unreadable expression. "You know what; you just―" she cut herself off because her emotions got weird when she was sleepy, so to keep herself from yelling, she just stopped talking. She couldn't win against the woman's persistence.

"Yeah, I know what I just," Arizona murmured tartly. "Addison, it was good to see you, and hopefully it'll be better tomorrow when it's less dramatic and keeping my eyes open isn't something I have to actively focus on doing."

"It's good to see you, too," Addison drawled, her tone just on the right side of derisive. "Can I at least get a hug? I haven't seen you in months."

At that, Arizona showcased a gentle grin that was stunning in its simplicity. "Of course you can." She stepped away from Callie and wrapped her arms around the taller woman in a tender embrace that they both leaned into. They had been really good friends once and when everything was sorted out, it would be nice to get back to that. "It is _really_ good to see you, Addie," she whispered, looking into green-tinted light blue eyes as the two separated.

Addison didn't say anything for a long moment, her gaze jumping between the blonde's eyes and mouth. "Yeah... you, too, Arizona."

Callie watched them silently for a second and wondered what the history was there because there was definitely something between them. Or did Arizona just have that kind of chemistry with everyone? It was hard to tell. Whatever it was, Callie didn't feel like seeing it when she could be back at her apartment sleeping.

"I'm Callie," she said loudly, trying to move things along. "Callie Torres." She stuck her hand out for the interloper to shake. She didn't know what to make of her: she was Derek's ex-wife, who was apparently a lesbian now, and she was also friends (more than friends?) with Arizona. She'd like to stand against her in solidarity with Meredith, but if this woman was friends with Arizona, she might not be able to do that.

Anyway, she was about to collapse if she didn't get home soon. She could think about it tomorrow.

"Addison Montgomery," the red haired woman introduced herself, smiling beautifully at the brunette. "I'll let you get her home." She paused like she was going to say something, but instead she just wished them a goodnight and walked back inside the hospital.

"What is it with you and redheads?" Callie asked Arizona once Addison was out of earshot.

"What do you mean?"

Callie snorted as they started on their way home. What did she mean? What did Arizona mean what did she mean? "What I mean is what is your deal with attracting redheads? You got some superpower I don't know about?"

"You mean Addie?"

"Well, no shit, Arizona."

But the double board certified surgeon was shaking her head. "No, no, no. Nothing has ever happened between me and Addison. She was married to my best friend for most of the time that I've known her, and I would never… no."

"Just because nothing happened doesn't mean there were never feelings," Callie pointed out, shrugging.

Arizona flinched at her words, but rolled her shoulders in an effort to disguise the reflexive action. "I'm not talking about this."

"Why not?" The future ortho surgeon pushed. "If nothing happened―"

"Callie, I love you and I trust you and you are great friend, but I will not talk about this with you," Arizona spoke in an even tone, every note of her voice expertly controlled to give nothing away.

There was a buzz, she knew. Not in her ear. No, it was… it was in her chest. Yes, that was it. It was a warm buzz, gently rattling around in her ribcage, coating her heart and lungs, and _oh._ It was spreading lower. To her stomach and abdomen. It was just the strangest sensation, something Callie was highly unfamiliar with and though the feeling itself was pleasant, its presence wasn't. She had no idea what it was, but it was. It was everywhere.

"You love me?" Was that her voice? That breathless, pitchy sound? That was her? And when had she stopped walking?

It was the change in her voice that Arizona registered immediately that made her turn and walk back to where Callie was standing frozen. She stopped just in front of the darker skinned woman and silently examined her features, feeling her earlier exhaustion fading away as she took her in. She never knew looking at another person could be so peaceful. "Yes," she breathed, feeling unreasonably light. "I love you, Calliope."

And the strength she exerted to stop herself from adding on "as a friend" should have won her some kind of award.

xXx

Arizona loved her.

_Arizona loved her._

Arizona freaking Robbins loved her.

Why couldn't she stop thinking that?

She should have been asleep. God, she had been _so sleepy,_ but now she was lying awake in bed thinking about how the woman in her arms loved her. As if it were some kind of life changing event, which it _wasn't_. It wasn't. But she just could not for the life of her stop thinking about it. Because Arizona loved her. As a friend, obviously, but still. Arizona _loved_ her.

"Ugh," she moaned quietly, unexpectedly feeling the sound morph into a light chuckle. The buzz from before was coming back. Not that it had ever really gone away, but it had receded enough that she could ignore it and now it was back.

"Why are you laughing?" She felt more than heard the question since Arizona's head was tucked sweetly against her chest.

Nothing. Nothing was funny, but she couldn't stop laughing. She was just happy. Because her best friend loved her and that was just… well, it was great. Yeah, that was the word she was settling on. Anything more would have been excessive, right?

Even so, she dragged a slow hand through sunshine colored curls and smiled the feeling of that warm buzz in her chest. "I love you, too," she whispered serenely.

* * *

"I requested to have Meredith Grey on my service."

Arizona was a patient person, she was, but even she had her limits. And people doing exactly what she had told them not to do was one surefire way to test those limits. Addison Shepherd― or Montgomery rather, had always been exceptional at that.

"Of course you did," she muttered, scribbling something down on a chart before placing it back on the rack at the nurse's station.

"I just wanted to explain myself, Arizona. Is that so bad?" The neonatal surgeon wanted to know.

"Did it work?" Arizona inquired, blatantly ignoring the question posed to her.

Addison considered that, thinking back to her earlier conversation with her ex-husband's girlfriend. "Well, she seemed to understand and accept what I was telling her, but I don't know if it's helped Derek's case or not."

"Okay," she said simply.

"Okay?" All that fire last night and all Addison got was an 'okay'?

"Okay," she repeated, having nothing to add. She wasn't interested in talking about Meredith and Derek with Addison. Or with anyone if she was really being honest.

"Well then, tell me about your girlfriend," her old friend all but demanded as she followed Arizona from the nurse's station to the stairwell.

"What? You mean Callie?" And then she rolled her eyes at herself because who the hell else would Addison be talking about?

"Yeah, she's really sexy. Where did you find her?"

And then she rolled her eyes again because even though it had been a year since the redhead came out, it was still weird as fuck hearing her talk about women like that. "She's an intern."

"You're dating an intern, too?" Addison knew for a fact that Arizona had always been strongly opposed to dating interns. Hell, she was even hesitant to date residents. "Richard must have picked a wild bunch this year."

"Oh, you have no idea how wild I can be."

"How do you always know where to find me?" Arizona asked Callie as the smiling junior surgeon practically hopped up the stairs to stand on the step below Arizona, bringing them to the same height. "Oh, this is new," she commented impishly, bringing one hand up to rest on Callie's shoulder.

Callie chuckled at her and lifted her own hand to grab onto Arizona's. "Considering I wasn't even looking for you this time, I guess we can just call it fate."

"Mm-hmm," the blonde hummed skeptically. "Addison was just asking me about you."

"About how sexy I am?" Callie focused her smirk on Addison, whose cheeks flushed to nearly the same color as the coral pink scrubs she was wearing. "It's okay. You'd be surprised by how many people tell me that to my face. In fact, I heard it twice a few nights ago."

"Oh, did you?" Arizona queried, keeping her voice purposefully airy as she made eye contact with her best friend.

Callie's expression froze because there were times when Arizona did or said something that made her feel like she actually was Callie's girlfriend and it was always _so_ jarring. Now was one of those times. "We-ell, I always go home with you so it obviously didn't move me."

"Mmm," she hummed again, continuing to fix Callie with that analytical gaze that never failed to stop her in her tracks.

"You better not start making out right now." Addison's declaration sliced right through the tension they'd created.

The laugh that came out of Arizona was somehow simultaneously amused and sardonic. "No, we won't. We only do that at home."

"She doesn't know?" Callie asked, referring to their unique faux relationship arrangement.

"Uh-uh," Arizona shook her head in confirmation.

"So we'll be adding her to the list of everyone else who thinks we're…" in a real romantic relationship. "… yeah," she finished instead.

"Uh-huh," Arizona nodded that time.

"What don't I know?" That was the thing about coming to a new place: being constantly out of the loop.

"I'll tell you later," the peds surgeon promised, quickly weighing the pros and cons of telling her the truth. She really would prefer to keep it between the four people who were directly involved (and Derek, who generally knew about what Mark and Arizona were up to). Then again, Callie might not want another person falsely thinking she was into women.

Callie leaned up to severely minimize the distance between them so she could whisper right into Arizona's ear. "You gonna tell her the truth?"

"If you want me to," she allowed.

Callie leaned back again and shrugged. "I don't care."

"That's entirely unhelpful," Arizona frowned.

"I'll make it up to you," she threw out the offer casually. "I actually have things to do so I gotta go. Will I see you for lunch?"

"If I don't get paged, yeah."

"Ooo, can we do it in an on-call room or your office?" The words were out before she could process the double meaning. And now that she couldn't correct herself, she fought off a blush because wow, okay, it was shit like that that made people think she and Arizona were actually fucking.

The smaller woman was visibly entertained as she replied. "My office. Around one?"

"Perfect," Callie smiled, giving Arizona's hand a squeeze before walking around Addison and continuing on up the stairs. "See you later."

"Alligator," the kid doctor called back automatically.

"You're a loser," her voice carried through the stairwell as she moved further out of sight.

"You love me," Arizona reminded her in that faux-innocent way she tended to adopt when trying to be extra cheeky.

"True."

The grin on her face was a mile wide and she fought valiantly to tamp it down. She had been just on the cusp of sleep again when she heard Callie echo her earlier sentiment last night. Well, that morning, technically, but whatever. She hadn't told Callie that she loved her expecting her to say it back; she had said it in the heat of the moment, but it was true. She felt very deeply about Calliope and their friendship, enough to safely categorize the feeling as love. She loved her best friend in a purely (re: mostly) platonic manner. She had no problem admitting that, but she needed it to stay that way.

She could not, under any circumstances, develop _feelings._ (And yes, she meant gay feelings.)

Any inkling of _feelings_ would be shut down immediately because no. Just unquestionably no. She loved herself too much to put herself through falling for a straight girl. So, no absolutely fucking not.

No matter how enjoyable it was to kiss Callie.

No gay feelings allowed.

"I don't see you for six months and suddenly you're in love."

Addison's awed grumble broke her out of her introspection and made her face screw up in distaste because she literally _just_ outlawed her gay feelings in regards to Callie.

"Ugh, don't say that," she groused as she led them down the staircase.

"What? Why not? I think it's great. You're hot, she's hot, and you two are hot together. And it's obvious she's ass over tits in love with you."

Oh, god. Oh, NO.

OH.

NO.

There would be none of that.

"Please, stop saying things. That's not even‒ mmm, no," Arizona spluttered because Addison needed to not. "My relationship with Callie is not something I want to discuss with you." Not now and not ever.

"Arizona, come on. I know things with us got a little weird and it got all fucked when Derek and I split up, but I thought we were friends." Addison was completely thrown by the blonde's behavior towards her. The younger woman was acting like she had done something wrong and she couldn't figure out why.

The fair haired woman sighed. Her feelings concerning Addison had always been somewhat tumultuous and they probably always would be. Trying to reconcile a woman who had been her best friend's wife: someone she had formed a bond with and someone who was explicitly and utterly off limits to her, with this new, lady-loving, smoldering-stare-at-her-lips creature inevitably gave her a headache when she thought about it too hard. She wasn't deliberately being an ass, she was just uncharacteristically out of her depth with the situation.

"We are friends, Addison. I just…" she heaved another sigh. "I don't talk to anyone about my relationship with Callie, except for Callie. I don't mind talking about her, but I don't…" she shook her head as an uncomfortable feeling twisted around her spine, causing her to squirm in place. "I really don't feel okay with discussing our feelings toward and for each other with other people."

"Okay, I can understand that," Addison said because she got it. Arizona had always been a fairly private person, although it like there was more to it than that.

"Thank you," Arizona smiled.

"Why are you still here?"

The question was spat to Addison when the pair walked out of the staircase onto the first floor of the surgical wing.

"I'm only here temporarily, Derek," she briefly placated him. "Unless of course, I decide I wanna stay."

"You don't," he said tersely. "And you have some nerve forcing Meredith to be on your service."

"I was trying to help you!" She shouted, fed up with being the bad guy. She was not the fucking bad guy; she was just gay and sarcastic.

"If you two are going to fight, you might wanna wait to do it in private," Arizona advised them as people began to stare.

"I don't wanna fight," Addison stated quietly. "I'm sorry that Meredith is mad at you, Derek, but it's not my fault that you didn't disclose important personal information about yourself to your girlfriend. And maybe if you or Mark or Arizona would have bothered to still be my friends after the divorce _like all of you promised_ right before you and Mark left me in New York, I might have known that she didn't know and kept my mouth shut. Now if you'll excuse me." And with that, the double board certified neonatal surgeon walked away from both blue eyed surgeons.

xXx

Callie was having the strangest day. She felt fucking great for no discernable reason. She hadn't even done anything overly interesting at all, just suturing people in the ER and avoiding being sneezed on for the most part. But she just felt so good. And now she was sitting in her best friend's office eating lunch and she somehow felt even better. It was amazing.

"Why are you smiling so much?"

Arizona's question only made her smile wider. "I'm happy."

"Oh, that's good. Any particular reason?" She inquired interestedly, spearing a head of broccoli on her fork.

"You know," Callie chuckled. "There's no reason I can think of; I'm just happy. It's really been getting on Meredith's nerves."

"I can imagine it would." Arizona almost asked how the other intern was doing, but she stopped herself at the last second.

"If I asked you to do me personal favor, would you do it?"

Now, the thing that Arizona had learned about Callie Torres was that she always had a lead up to something if she thought Arizona wouldn't like it. No matter what the lead up was, she took on this peculiar tone that caused an unsettling tension in the blonde's back. In the earlier days of their friendship, it used to make her uncomfortable, but now she found a quiet enjoyment in it because didn't Callie know Arizona would do pretty much anything for her?

"That depends on the personal favor," she replied, tilting her head in curiosity.

"Can you make Karev stop talking to me?" And yes, Callie knew she was being petty, but oh the fuck well.

The peds surgeon, having expected something more serious, burst out in loud peels of laughter, silently thanking goodness she didn't have any food in her mouth to choke on. "Does this have anything to do with the fact that you slept together?"

"He told you that?!" The intern was appalled and began to mentally plan out the disappearance of Alex Karev. "I'm actually going to kill him."

"No. I figured it out," Arizona chortled at her friend's furious expression.

"Ugh, it was a bad decision," Callie told her quickly, not want Arizona to think less of her. "And now he always looks at me like he's seen me naked and it makes my skin crawl. And I'm sure he knows it."

The shorter woman was still giggling when she spoke again. "Oh, come on, Callie. You slept together once and now he's being Alex about it. Just ignore him when he's being an ass."

"Which is all the damn time," Callie muttered.

"And isn't he interested in Stevens now?" Arizona didn't actually know, but she thought she'd seen the two interns flirting a few days ago.

"So?" Karev being interested in a woman didn't stop him from leering at every other attractive woman in his vicinity, and they both knew it. "You know, he gave George syphilis."

Arizona sputtered comically at that little nugget of information. "Wh‒ _what?_ Karev and O'Malley slept together?!" Her mind was officially blown.

"What? What?! No, they didn't‒ ew! _EW._ Arizona, don't be gross." If only brain bleach existed. "Karev slept with Olivia, that nurse who looks like a Keebler elf, and then Olivia slept with George."

"Oh. That makes much more sense." Much, much more sense.

"Uh, yeah. You gave me some visuals I never ever needed," Callie shuddered, shooting the blonde an irked look.

"I'm sorry," she said sheepishly because she really was. No one ever needed to picture that union. "So Karev gave O'Malley syphilis, which explains the black eye. He wouldn't tell me where it was from."

"Well, it was from George," the brunette confirmed. "And he deserved it."

"Calliope," Arizona admonished, her brow furrowed in displeasure.

Callie would have murmured some kind of protest, she really would have if it weren't for that damn buzzing. It was back again, only this time it was concentrated to her belly. It was the weirdest fucking thing and she could not figure out how to get over it.

"What are you thinking about?" Arizona watched Callie's eyebrows dip down in the middle and her mouth settle into a pensive frown, signaling that she was preoccupied in her own head.

The brown eyed woman didn't answer right away, though she did take a smaller, ivory hand in her own in a gesture of acknowledgement. The move made the buzz spread from her fingertips to the top of her head, down her neck, to corral in her thoracic cavity. Her gaze instantly shot up to Arizona's in astonishment. What the fucking fuck was happening to her? She searched endless cerulean pools for any indication that Arizona felt was she was feeling, but all she saw was mix of bemusement and tender patience.

"I miss the beach," was her next sentence.

"We have beaches here," Arizona let her know, but she suspected that Callie hadn't really been thinking about beaches.

"I mean hot beaches, where the sand is too hot to step on in the summer and you can get a tan in like, ten minutes, and the water isn't negative ten degrees at all times of the year," Callie elaborated because now that she thought about it, she really did miss the beach. And not even just Miami beaches; her favorite beach spot that she'd ever been to was in Turks and Caicos. Nothing would ever compare to that beach.

"I like the beach. I had my first kiss on a beach in Italy actually," Arizona said, recalling those two weeks with Giuliana. It felt like a lifetime ago, but the memories were still fresh in her mind.

"Oh, really?" Callie loved hearing about Arizona's past, especially since such stories were so far and few between.

"Mm-hmm. I was fifteen and we were visiting some of my mother's family there. My older cousin Mariella had this friend named Giuliana. She was seventeen with these big, gorgeous brown eyes, long, thick light brown hair, and legs to die for, so of course my little gay self was smitten right away. I spent the entire two weeks I was there trying to find ways to spend time with her. It was a little pathetic, but I think teenage years are meant to be a little pathetic, you know? As a learning experience. So anyway, the last day I was there, we were on the beach, just the two of us. I was babbling on about something when she cupped my cheeks with her hands and kissed me."

"That's so sweet," Callie cooed, smiling.

"Yeah, I remember‒ you know when you're on a rollercoaster and there's a sudden drop and it feels like your stomach is kind of flying? Well, now I know it's just adrenaline, but I remember feeling like my stomach was going to float away in the wind when she kissed me. I was later told that it was butterflies in my tummy."

Callie's world had never stopped before.

But it sure as shit was stopping now.

Because butterflies?

_Fucking butterflies?_

The persistent buzzing in her stomach? The buzzing so clearly caused by Arizona? It was fucking butterflies?

Not even in her dizziest daydreams could she have ever… And she told Arizona, she _told her_ there was nothing to worry about.

And now she had butterflies.

"Oh, shit."

* * *

_When you call me fuckin dumb for the stupid shit I do._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Help me get over the butterflies?
> 
> Training Wheels by Melanie Martinez
> 
> ~esthropp


	9. Broken When It's Over

**a.k.a. Did You Know She Was Gay?**

_I don't know why, but my hands are shaking.  
I can see you coming and I stand here waiting._

* * *

Don't be weird.

Don't be weird.

Do _not_ be weird.

"Calliope?"

"Fuck."

Stop being fucking weird, Callie.

When Arizona didn't even say anything, just looked at her with that concerned expression that said both are-you-okay and what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you, she knew she wasn't doing a good job of playing it cool. But how could she? When she was going around feeling _goddamn butterflies_ for her best friend. That was just not cool. She was straight and like, okay, sure, it could just be a girl crush, but she had had girl crushes before and she never had butterflies for them.

Ugh.

"Callie, what's going on with you?" Arizona watched her friend's internal struggle from the other side of Callie's bedroom as she got ready for bed.

"What do you mean?" God, she was even bad at feigning surprise now.

"I'm not gonna force you to talk to me if you don't want to, but I am here if you decide you want to," Arizona told her, stopping in her tasks so she could make eye contact with Callie so the other woman knew she was being completely genuine.

Yeah, it was highly unlikely that Callie would ever wanna talk to Arizona about her butterflies. How embarrassing would that be? Even just thinking about it caused the Cuban woman's neck to heat up. She would rather eat a bag of rock salt.

Maybe she just needed to get it out of her system? Maybe with increased exposure to Arizona, the butterflies would go away. Although, it was increased contact with Arizona that caused them to show up in the first place. Maybe the two of them needed some distance? But how shitty would it be of her to say I love you, and then disappear on Arizona for a couple of weeks? Yeah, she would not be that guy.

So what was she supposed to do? The butterflies had to go.

"Are you going to be this introspective for the rest of the night?" Arizona queried, interrupting the flow of her thoughts. "Because I have a few chapters left of my book―"

"When did you know that you liked girls?"

That stopped the blonde in her tracks for a few tense seconds. "I've kind of always known, I guess. Growing up, I just only ever wanted to kiss other girls. Why?"

"No reason," she lied, shaking her head quickly. "I was just thinking… Addison, she took a while to figure it out, yeah? Is that normal?"

"It is pretty normal for people to come out later in life, especially since homosexuality is being more accepted now than it ever has been. I mean, some people just really don't know because they never had the environmental trigger than made them question their sexuality, and so they don't figure it out until they're older," Arizona explicated, slipping into bed as she spoke. "And you know, some people know from an early age, but they don't feel comfortable being who they are, so they wait for years to come out. Or they just never do. Self-acceptance is a long and difficult road for a lot of people."

Callie sat still for several seconds, digesting that load of information. So, some people just literally did not know they were gay? That sounded… bizarre. Well, no, not bizarre, but kind of terrifying, right? You go your whole life thinking one thing about yourself, and then someone swoops in and BAM! You discover this whole new part of yourself. That was wicked frightening to think about.

But Callie was straight anyway. She was just curious, which was normal.

"And Addison? Did she know or...?"

Arizona snorted. "No, Addie had no idea. Not for a long, long time."

"Did you know that she was gay?" The tan-skinned woman wanted to know. "Before she did, I mean."

"I had an inkling, but she was married to my best friend, who is a man, so I didn't think about it much," she answered. "Any particular reason you're so interested in this?"

"I don't know. I'm just kind of ignorant, I guess," Callie shrugged, looking down at her lap as she fidgeted with her comforter. "I thought I'd ask you since you know about it."

"You don't have any other gay friends?" Arizona didn't know whether she should be surprised or not.

"No, I do, but I never felt compelled to ask them about it," she said.

Arizona nodded, scooting down under the comforter so that she was lying down on her side facing Callie. "Why not?"

"Because I got the feeling they wouldn't have been comfortable talking to me about it. And I've never been this curious either," she admitted quietly, mimicking her friend's movements so that she was now lying down facing the other woman.

"I'm glad you asked," the light haired woman replied, smiling a gentle, drowsy smile that only showed a hint of her dimples, but was no less radiant than one of her toothier grins. Her eyes still shined like she was in on the world's most entertaining secret and it was so freaking charming that Callie didn't even the blame the butterflies for battering around in her stomach at that moment.

Just-about-to-fall-asleep Arizona was an entity that Callie was constantly trying to mentally describe, but there were no words in her repertoire that did the Attending justice.

So yeah, maybe it wasn't _that_ crazy that she gave Callie butterflies.

"Come here," she heard herself whisper, reaching for Arizona's waist to pull her closer. Once the smaller woman had her head resting on the same pillow as Callie, the taller woman inched forward and pressed their lips together, tentatively at first. When she felt Arizona responding to the kiss, she moved in to deepen it, swiping the tip of her tongue against the blonde's lower lip.

Arizona's mouth fell open in a quiet moan of surprise, which Callie actually liked. She really enjoyed open mouthed kisses with Arizona because the fairer woman had such a sensuous way of caressing her lips against Callie's that it made her whole body go warm. And now the butterflies were out of control. The front of Arizona's body touching hers probably wasn't helping.

Arizona pulled away first, baffled out of her mind. They hadn't kissed behind closed doors since that first practice one almost a month and a half ago. "What's, um, what's up?" She panted, trying to discern what her friend was thinking, but her mind was kind of jumbled because as she had mentioned before, Calliope was an incredible kisser.

Unable to stand the searching look in Arizona's gaze and to hide whatever her own eyes were surely giving away, Callie ducked her head down and peppered wet kisses onto a creamy, defined clavicle before she answered. "I don't really know… is this okay?"

Arizona, not knowing what the hell to think, nodded once. "Yeah. It's okay." As though she would have really said stop.

Callie continued to place slow, open mouthed kisses on Arizona's neck and jaw, silently delighting in the whines and whimpers she heard the other woman trying to stifle. But she had always kind of liked doing that to Arizona, making her squirm and shiver and laugh and moan. It was fun discovering the things she could make Arizona do and the sounds she could make her produce. That didn't make her gay though, did it?

She had virtually no time to ponder that question further because she got distracted by the soft skin of Arizona's waist. She didn't remember putting her hand up under her tank top, but there it was, with the delicate pads of her long fingers trailing back and forth across the smoothness. So distracted was she that her lips paused their ministrations against the peds surgeon's neck.

"Mmm," she groaned almost inaudibly, feeling a little dizzy from the heady combination of Arizona's answering moan and the sluggish wriggling of her body in response to Callie's hands on her.

"Calliope." The low, plaintive whimper of her name caused her to smile because she had gotten that sound out of Arizona maybe once before now.

Maybe that was it. Maybe it was just because it was Arizona, and Callie didn't have to question her sexual orientation, and she wasn't having a mini-crisis about this girl crush _thing_ she had. It was just Arizona. And she'd get over it eventually. Once the novelty of being with Arizona Robbins like this wore off, the butterflies would fade and later, Callie would laugh about the stupid little crush she had on her Attending.

* * *

And it wasn't like she expected them to fade away over night because feelings, however unaware one was of their presence, didn't just go away like that; she knew that. But when she watched Arizona's eyes flutter open that morning, she had been bombarded by a stampede of goddamn wildebeests in her stomach and the feeling had been so intense, she felt a bubble of nausea in her throat.

All because Arizona opened her eyes.

What even the heck?

How was she supposed to get that under control? Was she supposed to just ride it out or force it away? WHY WERE FEELINGS SO WEIRD AND DIFFICULT?

"Torres, you okay?"

"I'm fine." Like hell she would admit to be thinking about her feelings for Arizona while in the middle of a skin graft with Arizona's loud mouth best friend. _Like hell._

"Then pay attention or get out of my OR," he snapped.

She opened her mouth to protest, but ended up closing it because it wasn't worth it. She wasn't going to be snarky to an Attending because she was feeling edgy and unsettled over her own personal feelings. If it were Burke instead of Sloan, she might have risked it, but she didn't want it getting back to Arizona that she was being obstinate and moody.

Even though she totally was.

She was able to hold her tongue for the remaining hour of the surgery and the two minutes it took her to scrub out. Grabbing the charts she knew Sloan was going to make her do, she stalked away to find a corner of the hospital to hide away in so she could work and stew in peace.

"Callie! Callie, wait up!"

In peace. She just. Wanted. Some. Peace. To pout and be irked and ruminate without bothering anyone else.

But no.

"George," she greeted neutrally, slowing down enough for him to catch up with her.

"Hey, I was wondering‒ I mean, if you're interest, maybe we could―"

"Spit it out, George," she bit out.

"We should get dinner," he blurted out in a rush. "Sometime."

She stopped. "Dinner? Yeah, sure, whatever."

"Really?" He said, eyes gleaming hopefully.

"Yeah, George. Really," she replied derisively, unsure as to why he appeared to be so excited. "Just let me know when."

"Well, I was hoping we could go this Friday."

"I have a thing with Arizona on Friday," she told him, and then frowned because apparently even the mention of her name and the butterflies acted up. How the hell? "Maybe lunch would be better."

"Oh, lunch. Yeah, that's cool," he muttered with an unconvincing smile.

"Great," Callie said slowly, narrowing her eyes at her friend. There was something she was missing here and she didn't know if she should ask because he seemed nervous. Like, weirdly nervous. And she had her own issues to work out, like figuring out how to get her feelings under control.

"So, uh, where are you headed?" He wondered.

"To do these charts for Sloan." And maybe cry a little bit.

"Oh, that really sucks," he chuckled weakly.

She didn't know why, but she looked at his mouth then and she got an idea. A weird, stupid, ridiculous idea. So obviously, she was going to go through with it. "Come with me." She grabbed his hand and hauled him into the nearest supply closet, keeping the charts firmly in her grasp.

And then she kissed him.

His lips were kind of chapped, but still soft. His mouth was wetter than she would have expected, but it was a nice kiss. And she felt something, a little flutter somewhere in her gut. Nothing compared to what Arizona made her feel, but it was something. And that had to mean something, right?

"Okay," she blew out a breath after pulling away from the kiss. "Thanks." And then she turned around and left.

xXx

Arizona's friends were weird. Well, boys were weird in general, but her boys were just such bizarre creatures. They were both weird in their own Mark and Derek ways, but still so weird. That was why she occasionally went to her good friend Bailey to talk about some things. Usually sensitive things she knew she wouldn't be teased about later on. Because Miranda Bailey was discreet.

And right now Arizona needed discreet, which was why she caught up to Bailey and matched her stride toward wherever the hell the general surgeon was going.

"Hey, Miranda," she smiled, covering her mouth over a cough.

"Arizona," Bailey said back, eyeing her. "You need a consult?"

"Mmm, no." How should she approach this? "I need an opinion."

"On a case?" The shorter woman hoped.

"If that's how you want to think of it," Arizona offered, clearing her itchy throat.

"I don't do personal, Robbins. You know this," she reminded her.

"I know, but just hear me out, please. I can't talk to Mark or Derek about this, so I really need like five minutes of your time," Arizona implored, widening her eyes in that way that had most people falling over their feet.

"You get two. Go."

"Okay so, you know how Callie and I are friends, right? Best friends, really, but yeah, we're very close. So close, in fact, that sometimes we sleep in the same bed because it's comfortable and we just sleep better that way, you know? It's nothing sexual. So, Mark has this woman that he's been seeing for a few months now and she really likes to proposition me. For sex. And it's _weird_. So sometimes Callie pretends to be my girlfriend and it's fine. Nothing's weird, you know? Because she's straight and I don't date interns. But sometimes we have to kiss in front of Nicole ‒that's the woman Mark's seeing, Nicole and it's never anything overly salacious; just a peck or sometimes we open our mouths to tick her off when she's being really obnoxious.

"But it's always part of the act, and we've both made it very clear that there are no feelings and there will be no feelings because she's straight and I'm… right, okay, so last night, while Callie and I were in bed, she kisses me. And I mean, she _really_ kisses me. We're actually in a full blown make out session before my mind finally catches up with what's going on, and so I ask her what's up. She says she doesn't know and continues to kiss me until we're too exhausted to kiss anymore. I have been going over it in my head and I just cannot figure out what the hell that was, so I would like to get an objective opinion on what I should do." And then she dissolved into a long bout of coughing because her throat had been bothering her all day, being dry and scratchy. She had taken something for it earlier, but apparently she'd need to follow up with another dose later.

"Robbins, you okay?" Bailey's brow furrowed in concern as she firmly patted the pediatric doctor's back.

"Yeah," Arizona choked out, trying valiantly to clear her throat and fight off the sudden lightheadedness she was feeling. "I'll be fine. So what do you think?"

"I think you need a chest X-ray," Bailey remarked.

"About Callie," she clarified, rolling her eyes.

"I think…" Bailey sighed, trailing off. This was not in her job description. "That playing pretend like you say you two are doing can be a very eye-opening experience." And that was all she was saying.

Arizona opened her mouth to protest the vague response, but decided against testing her luck. "I'll think about that. Thank you."

"Mm-hmm," was all she replied with before walking away.

An eye-opening experience? For Callie? What did that even mean?

"Dr. Robbins."

She was a little slow on the uptake so it took a few seconds for her intern's voice to register. "Dr. O'Malley."

"I finished the charts you gave me and I checked on Molly in 2343, she's doing fine," he informed her.

"Awesome," she spoke derisively, feeling the beginnings of a headache forming right in the center of her forehead. "Have you seen Dr. Torres?"

"Oh, Callie? She, uh… why?"

She turned and fixed him with a withering glare. "I don't remember that being any of your business. Now, have you seen her or not?"

"Yeah, I think she's in an on-call room on the third floor," he confessed, sighing.

She started to nod and then thought better of it when it felt like her brain was throbbing. She abruptly stopped the motion and opened her eyes, unsure as to when she'd even closed them. "Page me if you need anything." At least, that's what she thought she'd said. It was hard to speak and cough at the same time.

Her journey down to the third floor was a bit of a blur. Literally. All the coughing she was doing was making her eyes water and her vision go blurry. To avoid being stared at, she even tried to hold in the coughs, but that just made her tear up even more. It was just a big mess. And it wasn't helping her headache, which was the reason she just went on-call room door to on-call room door to find Callie instead of just paging her. And of fucking course Callie was in the last room she got to.

"Hey," she whispered because Callie was sitting on a bed with only a lamp light on doing charts or studying, honestly Arizona couldn't tell.

Callie's head snapped up in alarm and Arizona noticed it took her longer than normal to relax once she realized who it was. "Hey. What's up?"

"Not much. It's been a pretty slow day," she replied, leaning against the door. For support, not because she thought it made her look cool. And it didn't appear as if Callie was overly fond of her presence at the moment. "What about you?"

"Oh, just some paperwork."

Okay…?

"Should I leave?" She wondered because Callie wouldn't look at her.

"You should do whatever you want, Arizona," the intern said with a modicum of bite in her tone.

Arizona would have chuckled at that, but her throat was currently on fucking fire, so she settled for a smirk. "Am I bothering you?"

"No," Callie grumbled.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Arizona."

"Because you seem pretty bothered."

Callie inhaled a deep breath through her nostrils, trying her hardest not to snap. "I'm a little bothered now."

Apparently pestering Callie was good for a headache, Arizona was finding. "Well, I'm glad to know I have such an influence on you," she beamed. "But I will leave you alone if you want me to."

She did want her to leave because distance helped keep the butterflies at bay. But Arizona was her best friend and she always wanted her to stay. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you," Arizona answered easily, and then coughed up a wad of mucous that was then immediately, accidentally swallowed. She was sure her face looked properly disgusted. "But if you don't wanna see me, I can go."

"It's not that I don't wanna see you." Not a total lie. "I just have a lot of work to do here."

"Fair enough. Do you mind if I lie down in here? I'm feeling kind of off. I think I need a nap." And a bottle of Nyquil.

"Of course." And since it was them, Callie moved some of her papers from the bed she was on to the nearby table and scooted up so Arizona would have room to curl up next to her.

Finally moving away from the doorway, Arizona took two steps before her head swam and the world started spinning in front of her. She reached out to grab something to hold onto because her knees felt like jello and her vision was going dark.

Callie's heart stopped. Or it jerked or it leapt or _something._ But she somehow felt it clawing its way up her throat as she watched in what felt like slow motion as Arizona collapsed to the floor.

"Arizona!"

* * *

_You know just what to do, how to make me want you.  
And I know I'll be broken when it's over._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title and lyrics: Force of Nature by Bea Miller
> 
> ~esthropp


	10. And Other Various Parts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who reads, reviews, favorites, and everything. I really appreciate it. This chapter has been up on ff.net since July and I never posted it here because I am The Actual Worst.

**a.k.a. Can We Watch the Foxes?**

_Have you ever thought about_  
_What protects our hearts?_  
 _Just a cage of rib bone_  
 _And other various parts._

* * *

"It was just the flu, Callie."

"I know." And she did. She knew that, but she couldn't convince some part of her to stop worrying. She couldn't stop that part of her from causing her heart to race whenever Arizona fell asleep. She couldn't stop that part of her from staring at Arizona's chest rise and fall rather than sleeping herself. She just couldn't stop that part of herself from being terrified out of her mind that something worse was going to happen to her friend.

" _What the hell happened?" Mark demanded as he ran into the hospital room where his best friend lay still and unconscious. She was surrounded by doctors and he couldn't tell if they were there are friends or as professionals. Derek and Callie were on either side of her holding her hand, and he took pause for a second when he noticed the oxygen mask over her face._

_What happened?_

_Callie opened her mouth to answer his question because she had been there. She had been there when it happened, but god, she couldn't say anything. No words would form, let alone come out of her mouth. She was struck speechless as she mentally replayed watching Arizona crumple to the floor in front of her. A wave of nausea hit her and she swallowed the bile back down, but didn't try to speak again. She wasn't sure what would come out._

" _Callie said she collapsed," Derek answered for her._

" _She sounded like she was coughing up a lung when I saw her," Bailey added, brow furrowed in worry. "We're running tests now, but I think it might be pneumonia."_

" _We don't know for sure though," Derek told the other man quickly, knowing how bad it could get if Arizona had pneumonia._

" _The last time she was sick, she was in the hospital for two weeks," Mark said robotically as he approached the hospital bed. His stomach churned uncomfortably as he stared at her._

" _What?" Callie gasped, feeling the cold grasp of fear squeeze her heart. Two weeks? Arizona had been so sick she had been hospitalized for two weeks? That couldn't happen again. Not now._

" _She's never known how to do anything half-assed," Derek tried quirking a smile at her to help ease her nerves, but she could read the fear clear as day in his pretty blue eyes. "Her immune system is usually pretty good about keeping her healthy, but when she does get sick, it's pretty bad."_

Callie had mentally beat herself up at the time. How had she not known that about Arizona? They spent the good majority of their free time together and talked about anything and everything. And how had she not noticed Arizona was getting sick? What kind of best friend did that make her that she didn't see that? God, what kind of _doctor_ did that make her? Maybe if she had realized sooner, she could have prevented it from getting this bad. If she had actually been paying attention to Arizona instead of her stupid fucking butterflies.

In the end things had been mostly fine. Arizona had the flu and she had to stay in the hospital for two days to make sure nothing serious happened, and then she had been allowed to go home. But god, Callie could hardly sleep. Every time she tried, all she saw was Arizona collapsing onto the ground and her subconscious mind seemed to enjoy playing out the scenario in the most horrific ways. So she just didn't sleep much.

"Calliope." Her voice was soft and sweet because she had only been awake for half an hour and she was still too ill to get up and move around much, so she was relaxing in her bed with a book she hadn't really been paying attention to.

"Hmm?" Callie picked at the plush comforter under her. It was her first day off in weeks and she wasn't likely to get another one anytime soon and Arizona was trying to get her to go out and do something instead of staying cooped up in her apartment.

"Callie, look at me," she requested and waited for those gorgeous brown eyes to meet hers. The smile that stole across her face was immediate and unintentional. "Thank you."

That caught Callie off guard. "For what?" She choked out in disbelief. She hadn't done anything.

"For taking care of me," Arizona said as if it was obvious.

"What?" What was she hearing right now? She had barely taken care of Arizona; she hadn't even been able to take off of work like she wanted to. Most of the time she got to see Arizona while she was sick was at night when she'd long since gone to sleep and in the morning when it was too early for her recovering body to wake up. "I haven't done anything."

"That's not true," the blonde protested, her voice still soft. "Mark and Derek told me that you called both of them to make sure they were taking good care of me." She had been home sick for three days now with Mark, Derek, and Addison each taking off a day of work to take care of her. She knew Callie would have taken those three days off to tend to Arizona herself, but that just wasn't possible for an intern.

"Well," Callie flushed to her roots, not really knowing what to say. "Yeah."

Arizona was silent after that. She was staring at Callie through a half-lidded gaze, still feeling a little drowsy. As far as she knew, the brunette had been sleeping on her and Mark's sofa for the past four nights to avoid getting sick and because she didn't want to be too far from Arizona. At first she had been too sick to care about anything other than being sick, but now that she was five days into her illness and it was just beginning to clear up, she finally noticed the dark circles under Callie's eyes, the cloud of exhaustion that seemed to hover over her, and the poorly concealed terror in her eyes.

She knew Callie was scared for her and that broke her heart. It was insane how much she could feel the taller woman's emotional distress even though she wasn't voicing it. It was just so clear to Arizona just from looking at her. That was the last thing she wanted. She didn't want Callie to constantly be afraid that something might happen to her; neither of them could live that way.

"I'm gonna be fine, you know," she reminded her, continuing her visual assessment of her friend.

"I know," Callie nodded, looking down.

"You don't have to worry or be scared that something bad is gonna happen to me," she kept on, bringing up a hand to cup Callie's cheek, forcing brown eyes to meet hers once more. "I don't want you to work yourself up over something you can't control."

Callie snorted derisively, but didn't otherwise respond.

"I'm serious, Callie," Arizona reinforced. "I don't get sick that often so there's no use worrying an ulcer through your stomach over this." And then she cracked a wry grin. "You're an intern; you have enough to worry about without adding my health to the mix."

"But I care about you, Arizona. Obviously I'm going to be a little concerned," Callie pointed out, trying to downplay her feelings.

"Okay," she conceded, resting her back against her headboard. She wasn't going to make it a big deal if Callie didn't want to talk about it. She just wanted to reassure the other woman that she was okay. "I'm not fragile," she reminded her.

That made Callie smile, finally, as she recalled that night so many months ago when Arizona had divulged such personal information about herself. "I remember," she said, taking the hand against her cheek and holding it in her own. "But I'm still staying here with you."

Arizona rolled her eyes and huffed, but a tiny smile found its way to her face.

xXx

"You're not gonna throw up on me if I feed you this, are you?" Callie eyed her best friend skeptically. The smaller woman was bundled up on the sofa watching some documentary on foxes because of course she was.

"If, in fact, I do find myself needing to regurgitate, Calliope, I will make sure it stays as far away from you as I possibly can," Arizona responded in that pinched regal tone she sometimes got when she was entirely unamused and wanted you to know it. "Now can I have my soup?"

"Should I get you a bucket, too?" Callie asked just to fuck with her.

"Give me the damn soup, Callie," she glared, receiving a pleased grin in return.

"It's really hot," the brunette warned her, bringing the steaming bowl over to where Arizona was sitting.

"Do you want to blow on it for me?" She drawled, lifting a dark blonde eyebrow.

"Can I?" Callie taunted. "I promise not to accidentally spit on it."

"Go away," Arizona chuckled, settling the soup into her lap and snuggling further into her burrito of blankets. She focused her attention back on the television for a few minutes until she noticed Callie staring at her. "What?"

Callie just grinned and shook her head, turning toward the television. Arizona was just too cute for words and honestly, fuck the butterflies. They didn't mean anything except that she and Arizona had a connection that was deeper than a mere friendship. It wasn't like she was in love with her or anything.

"You're being weird," Arizona commented idly.

"You like it when I'm weird," Callie countered, leaning over to smack a loud kiss against her cheek.

"Stop, you'll get sick!" She exclaimed, trying to wiggle away from Callie's grasp.

"I got my flu shot."

Arizona opened her mouth to retort, but was halted by a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Callie called out because if she didn't have to get up, she wasn't going to.

Arizona shot her a look, but declined to say anything.

"It's Addison," they heard back.

Callie rolled her eyes in annoyance at having to get up as she climbed to her feet and walked to the door, unlocking it and pulling it open. "Hey, come on in." She stepped to the side to let the neonatal surgeon inside.

Addison strode into the apartment and dropped down where Callie had been sitting with a heavy sigh.

"Callie's sitting there," Arizona informed her.

Addison then got up, moved over a foot and plopped down on the other side of Arizona, releasing the same heavy sigh. "Hi."

"Something wrong, Addie?" Arizona inquired with an amused smile, absently patting Callie's knee when the darker skinned woman sat back down next to her.

"No," the redhead sighed again. "Just… watching parents worry over their premature newborn wears on you every once in a while."

"Ah," the blonde nodded in understanding.

"Plus, I haven't gotten laid since I've been in this god forsaken city," she added on as what sounded like an afterthought.

"It's been weeks!" Arizona spluttered in disbelief while Callie attempted to stifle her laughter against Arizona's blanket-covered shoulder.

"I know!" Addison shouted, throwing her hands in the air in frustration. "I guess I just haven't found my groove here in Seattle yet."

"Your groove?" Callie choked out, failing to dampen her laughter.

"Oh, whatever," she frowned, and then looked over at Arizona. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay," she answered over half a mouthful of chicken noodle soup. "I slept better last night and I don't feel like my chest has a cinderblock sitting on it anymore. How's my department?"

Callie made a _tsk_ sound at the back of her throat. "I already updated you on the peds department."

"Yeah, but you'd lie to me to keep me from worrying," Arizona remarked. "So how is it really, Addison?"

"I was specifically instructed by Derek, Mark, and Richard not to tell you anything until you're physically able to come back to work," Addison told her.

"See?! I was given the same instructions and I still told you," Callie said, smiling triumphantly. "Still think I was lying?"

"You would lie your way into hell if you thought it would keep me from worrying or freaking out too much," Arizona deadpanned, staring her down for a few seconds. "But fine, I guess I believe you since I don't have many other options."

"Nice," Callie grumbled sarcastically.

Arizona beamed a tired grin at her.

"You two are so cute," Addison cooed.

"Oh, Jesus," Arizona muttered. She still wasn't going to tell Addison the truth, but she needed her to stop telling them what a great couple they were.

"What? You are."

"We are," Callie agreed with a sly smirk. "We're especially cute when we do that thing where your legs go―"

"Okay! We're cute. I got it." Callie was getting better and better at teasing and baiting Arizona, and Arizona could have turned it up a notch to top her (so to speak, of course), but she didn't feel comfortable going to that gay of a place. No matter how much Callie insisted she wouldn't have a problem with it.

"You don't even know what I was gonna say," Callie pouted.

"Yes, I do," Arizona said, side-eyeing her. "Now shush and let me watch the cute foxes."

Not even thirty minutes later, Arizona had finished about half of her soup before falling asleep against Callie's shoulder, which Callie had fully predicted would happen and carefully lifted the lukewarm bowl out of Arizona's lap to sit it on the coffee table. She then sat back and adjusted Arizona so the sick woman was settled more comfortably against her body, head now resting easily just above Callie's breasts.

"You're really good with her," Addison stated, having been watching the younger woman handle her sleeping friend.

Callie barely spared her a glance. "Yeah, we've been together a while, so…"

"She hasn't really told me much of anything about the two of you," Addison kept on, her gaze intently fixed on the pair. "She's pretty private about that kind of stuff, but I'm curious."

"There's really nothing that interesting about us." Which was mostly true. And also, she didn't wanna be subjected to an interrogation about her fake relationship by one Arizona's closest friends while the blonde was knocked the fuck out.

"Oh, I beg to differ," Addison scoffed, arching an elegant auburn brow. "You managed to get the world's most Type A, stickler for the rules, rarely steps out of line, would never date an intern woman to go out with you. An intern. There's plenty to be interested in."

Callie shrugged, not knowing what to say because as far as the redhead knew, that was true. "I don't really know what to tell you. I liked her, she liked me back, and for whatever reason, she gave me a chance. And now, eight months later, here we are."

"There has to be more to it than that," Addison persisted.

"Even if there was, I'm not gonna get my ass in trouble for telling you something Arizona doesn't want me to," she strategically excused herself from answering any other probing questions.

"Fine," Addison sighed for the fourth time since arriving at the apartment. "Well, are you two planning to move in together?"

Callie shot her a bewildered look. Didn't she just say…? "Not that I've been told, but seeing as how we live across the hall from each other, I don't see why we would."

"I was hoping if she moved in with you, I could take her room here," she explained.

"I like her bed better than mine." And that was the truth. Arizona's bed was stupidly comfortable. "So if we did choose to stay in one spot, it would most likely be here."

"What about getting your own place, just the two of you? Since you're all in love and stuff."

"I don't know. We haven't talked about it." And they weren't ever going to talk about it.

"Do you want to?"

Oh, my god, these damn questions. "I don't care. I'll do whatever she wants, but I'm not― I don't really care about that stuff. Now can we watch the foxes before I say something I'm not supposed to?"

"Okay," Addison held her hands up in a pacifying gesture and turned to face the television.

Neither woman said anything for the duration of the program and even kept silent for the subsequent program, which who the hell knew there were so many documentaries on foxes? Arizona was gonna be pissed that she missed them all.

And she was. She woke up as soon as the last documentary was going off and her bottom lip instantly pushed out in that infamous pout of hers. Callie sucked her own lips in to keep from smiling or laughing, but it was hard because Arizona's pout was so damn cute. Especially when it was genuine. Like right now.

"It might come back on later," she tried.

"No, it won't," Arizona whined quietly, burying her face into the softness of Callie's bosom. She had missed the foxes and nothing would be right in the world ever again.

Rein it in, Torres. Do not laugh. "We can look on a different channel if you want."

"Noooooo," the blonde wailed from her position. "It won't be as good." She then leaned back to look up at Callie with the pout firmly in place and watery blue eyes. "I missed them, Callie."

"Oh baby, it's okay," the intern wrapped her arms around Arizona and pulled her close again. And she tried, she tried so hard not to laugh, but a couple of chuckles snuck out as she was comforting her. But how could she not laugh when Arizona was being that adorable over some foxes?

"No, it's not," she denied, shaking her head.

Callie rested her cheek on the top of Arizona's head and attempted not to bust out laughing, but Addison was clearly trying to do the same, so it was pretty freaking difficult. Fortunately, she was distracted by someone knocking on the door.

"Who the hell?" Callie muttered under her breath.

"It's me!" Nicole shouted through the door as if she'd heard Callie.

"Oh, my fucking god," she groaned dramatically. "I'm not getting that."

"Calliope," Arizona had to laugh at her best friend's continued disdain for Mark's not-quite-girlfriend.

"I'll get it," Addison rolled her eyes as she got to her feet and went to answer the door.

"Hi, I'm Nicole," the shorter redhead greeted her, walking in.

"Addison," the blue-green eyed woman shook her hand. "I'm a friend of Arizona and Mark's."

"It's nice to meet you. I'm dating Mark," Nicole said as she made her way toward the kitchen. "Arizona, are you still not feeling well?"

Arizona made an indecipherable noise and pressed even further into Callie's breasts. She didn't wanna talk about it.

"She missed the foxes," Addison supplied an explanation for the blonde's current upset.

Nicole sent Callie a confused look, but the brunette pretended not to notice.

"Are you hungry?" Callie asked, squeezing Arizona in her arms to let her know she was talking to her. Arizona shook her head and Callie frowned. "Not even a little bit?" Arizona shrugged. Sickness made her funnily uncommunicative. "What if you take a bath first? Do you think you'll be able to eat something after?"

"You're gonna make me eat anyway so does it matter?" The peds surgeon questioned, but her words were still muffled so Callie had to lean down to hear her properly.

"It does if you're gonna throw up," she retorted.

Arizona jerked out of her arms to glare at her. "I threw up one time, Callie. Once. And you weren't even there when it happened. You didn't see it."

"Yeah, but there's always the possibility of it happening again," she reasoned, which only served to make the smaller woman more irate.

"Are you saying you wouldn't clean up my vomit?" The question was spoken in a very low, controlled tone.

"No, I would clean it up. The point is that I don't want to have to," she answered even though she knew she might get yelled at for it.

"You know what; leave me alone," Arizona scowled, moving to stand up.

"You mad at me?" Callie needled, grabbing Arizona's waist to keep her in place.

"You're an ass," she said, clearly irked.

"Yeah, but I'm your ass," Callie grinned, loving how she could get under Arizona's skin.

"Yeah, the pain in it," she threw back easily, eyes rolling skyward at their banter.

"You still love me though."

"Mm."

"Arizona."

"I'm gonna go take a bath."

"Arizona! Tell me you love me."

"You can heat the soup up if you want."

"Arizona!"

* * *

It was a few short days later that Arizona was finally able to get back to work and no, Callie wasn't freaking out. Not entirely anyway. She was maybe kind of a little bit flustered by the idea of not know where Arizona was at all times, which she knew was strange, at best. But considering recent events, it wasn't really, was it? Being at work and worrying about Arizona sick at home was one thing because at least she knew where the blonde was, but now she'd be able to travel freely through the hospital like before. And it was truly causing Callie some stress because what if something happened and she wasn't there?

Logically, she knew she wouldn't be able to be where Arizona was all the time forever. She _knew_ that. But it didn't alleviate the pressure in her chest. But what did? The periodic texts she was receiving from Arizona throughout the day, assuring her that she was fine and that although they wouldn't be able to meet for lunch, dinner was a guarantee. And there was a part of her that was thoroughly aware that her friend shouldn't feel compelled to do that for her, but she was grateful nonetheless because she definitely needed it.

She couldn't ever remember caring so much about someone she wasn't related to. And it was so fricking weird. Her whole Arizona experience was weird as shit, but it also wasn't in a way. It felt natural to be with Arizona the way she was. And _that_ was why it was so goddamn freakish to her. She'd had close female friends before, but her friendships with them paled in comparison to what she shared with Arizona.

She usually didn't think about that shit, but Addison asking her all those questions had her mind all scrambled up.

"Hey, you okay?"

Callie blew out a breath, regarding her friend for a second. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Oh, yeah, you definitely sound fine," Meredith joked sarcastically.

"Arizona's back at work today and I'm just a little worried," she explicated casually even though she was feeling anything but casual about it.

"She's not still sick, is she?"

Callie shook her head. "No, she's not. I'm just being silly. She keeps sending me texts so I know she's okay." She glanced over to see Meredith watching her and realized she'd have to elaborate. "Her being sick really freaked me out. It scared the hell out of me, actually."

"Derek said getting sick could be pretty dangerous for her," the dark blonde commented.

"And I can't get that out of my head," Callie admitted, deflating back against the wall. The pair of interns were sitting on a gurney in the first floor corridor they frequented. "I know she's fine now, but what about next time?"

"You can't worry about next time," Meredith told her. "You have no idea if there'll even be a next time, or when or if it'll come. You can't worry about what's not gonna happen for a long time when there are plenty of things in the present to worry about. Like, the intern exam."

"I know. You're right." But she was probably still gonna worry. "How are things with you and Derek?"

Meredith exhaled loudly. "Things are… we're working on it. He lied to me. For months. But I'm in love with him so I'm trying to get past it."

"How do you know?" She wondered.

"Know what?"

"That you're in love with him."

Meredith shrugged and was silent for a couple of seconds. "I don't know, I just always wanna be around him even when I'm mad at him. I pretend to like his taste in music because it makes him happy. I let him have the last slice of cheesecake because it's his favorite. When I've had a shitty day at work, his arms are the ones I wanna be in. When I've scrubbed in on a really good surgery, he's the first person I wanna tell. And when I'm with him, everything makes sense, no matter what else is going on. He and I make sense."

You know when you think you might be coming to a big realization? Big in an overwhelming, all encompassing, dizzying kind of way. Your eyes go wider than ever, your head swims and you hear what's going on, but you don't listen. You can't listen over the rush of all those significant memories flying through your head at warp speed. Your breathing goes a little shallow and your palms sweat, and it's all you can do not to scream.

And then everything clicks.

"And of course, there's the cliché butterflies I get when I'm with him."

Oh, _fuck_.

* * *

 _So it's fairly simple_  
_To cut right through the mess._  
 _And to stop the muscle_  
 _That makes us confess._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all like it.
> 
> Chapter title and lyrics: Breakable by Ingrid Michaelson
> 
> ~esthropp

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so that was the first chapter. Tell me what you think. 
> 
> And no, Mark and Arizona are not together, even though I crackship Markzona with the passion of a thousand blazing suns. 
> 
> Lyrics and chapter title: 32 Flavors by Ani DiFranco.
> 
> ~esthropp


End file.
